It’s an enduring stain on the reputation and standing of our country that nothing that Dick Cheney did as vice-president has been deemed a crime worthy of prosecution. As Charles Pierce pointed out yesterday, the war in Afghanistan alone has cost “2232 Americans killed, 20,000 local civilians killed, $10.1 million dollars an hour.” To have Dick Cheney free to lecture the country about the current president’s weakness is an abomination. The man has made the words “torture” and “America” synonymous, which is an enduring shame that cannot be blotted out. Dick Cheney is responsible for creating an explicit, operational guide to torture that manifested itself at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, as well as in our secret black site prisons in places like Thailand and Poland.
No one in the Bush administration was a more brazen liar about Saddam Hussein’s alleged role in the 9/11 attacks than Dick Cheney. And no one in their right mind thinks that the decision to invade Iraq made America a stronger or more respected nation.
Even though Cheney no longer serves in our government, he should be impeached to make sure he cannot “hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States.”
It’s the least we should do to repair our pride.
