In the wake of the op-ed heard 'round the world—in which Dick and Liz Cheney lambasted Obama for his alleged blase attitude toward terrorism, war and attempts at Middle East democracy being paid for with "American blood"—even Fox News had to call bullshit.
The Cheneys slammed Obama's laissez faire attitude and/or ignorance:
Terrorists take control of more territory and resources than ever before in history, and he goes golfing. He seems blithely unaware, or indifferent to the fact, that a resurgent al Qaeda presents a clear and present danger to the United States of America.
Then they less-than-subtly claimed that our pending withdrawal from Iraq will result in catastrophe:
America remains at war, and withdrawing troops from the field of battle while our enemies stay in the fight does not "end" wars. Weakness and retreat are provocative. U.S. withdrawal from the world is disastrous and puts our own security at risk.
To which reporter Megyn Kelley—despite (ostensibly) being part and parcel to Fox News' typically Republican, fear-mongering and Obama-blaming rhetoric—tore the Cheneys a new one. And it was totally glorious.
[T]ime and time again, history has proven that you got it wrong as well in Iraq, sir. You said there was no doubt Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. You said we would be greeted as liberators. You said the Iraq insurgency was in its last throes back in 2005. And you said that our intervention meant extremists would have to rethink their strategy of jihad.
Sadly, Kelley ultimately backed down and ended up concurring with the Cheneys that when Obama came into office, Iraq was in "stable" condition and all he had to do was negotiate the stay-behind effort. No matter that we should never have entered the war to begin with, or that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is proving to be the prohibitive force in said negotiation, not Obama's policies.
As ISIS continues to ravage war-torn Iraq, it seems imperative for politicians—and even pundits—to try and table their polarized party ideals and try to save as many lives as humanly possible. While we can't help but salivate at Republicans (at least temporarily) devouring their own, we'd vastly prefer a solution to finger-pointing.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
