Cheney: Kerry 'Trying to Rewrite History'

[Rose Siding]

snip>
The vice president praised the U.S. invasion of Iraq (news - web sites), saying it had "rid the world of a gathering threat to our peace and security."


He also accused presumed Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (news - web sites) and his running mate, John Edwards (news - web sites), of hypocrisy in their criticism of the administration, saying they had both seen the same prewar intelligence on Iraq that was given to President Bush (news - web sites), and both supported the decision to go to war.


"Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards are criticizing the president for looking at the same information that they did and coming to the same conclusion that they did. If the president was right, and he was, then they are simply trying to rewrite history for their own political purposes," Cheney said.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20040712/ap_on_el_pr/cheney

[Old and In the Way]

1. Cheney - "Go fuck yourself"

[AFSCME girl]

29. My sentiments exactly............

[mzmolly]

2. Did Cheney mention that there was some intelligence that was said to be

too sensitive to show the Senate before asking for their votes?

Bet not.

Good double speak though. Uhm, Go Cheney ??!! :toast:

[Ruffhowse]

3. Cheney, shut the Cheney up!!!!

[DenverDem]

4. Yeah, K/E SAW the evidence, cheney FABRICATED the evidence.

Typical publican strategy of accusing their opponents of doing the very thing that the publicans are overtly doing.

[shockingelk]

5. Here's the actual history

http://www.independentsforkerry.org/uploads/media/kerry-iraq.html


"The revised White House text, which we will vote on, limits the grant of authority to the President to the use of force only with respect to Iraq. It does not empower him to use force throughout the Persian Gulf region. It authorizes the President to use Armed Forces to defend the ``national security'' of the United States--a power most of us believe he already has under the Constitution as Commander in Chief. And it empowers him to enforce all ``relevant'' Security Council resolutions related to Iraq. None of those resolutions or, for that matter, any of the other Security Council resolutions demanding Iraqi compliance with its international obligations, calls for a regime change."

- John Kerry
Statement on Senate Floor
October 9, 2002

[lovedems]

6. BULLSHIT!

Every time this "fuck" wad opens his mouth, I despise him more. This was Bush's war. THIS WAS BUSH'S WAR! He is the one who decided to invade Iraq. He is the one who hurried the weapons inspectors out so he and Rummy could commence with "Shock and Awe".

Keep on talking Dickhead. Your evil gets more exposed everyday. :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[shanti]

7. what is WITH these assholes?

pointing out things that they themselves are guilty of?! i see this all the time on the net too, it's not just them.

[Maestro]

8. Dick, cheney yourself -nt

[MallRat]

9. Typical behavior: BRAVADO IN THE FACE OF AN ONCOMING SHITSTORM.

I think they'll be able to scapegoat the CIA for a week, maybe even two.

But when the smoking gun comes out that the White House KNOWINGLY DISTORTED AND FABRICATED INTELLIGENCE TO JUSTIFY THE IRAQ WAR, Cheney's words are going to come right back and bite him in the ass.

I hope I'm not disappointed.

-MR

[Solly Mack]

10. But then we knew Bush Inc would use their vote against them or anyone else

that voted on the IWR. They won't spell out the truth, they'll just say "Look! See! They voted for it"...and that's all some people will see.

They won't look at the lies Bush Inc told. Bush Inc was masterful in striking while the iron was hot....they got congress on record and they will use it against them...one way or the other.

The outright lies aren't up for debate when everyone can use the argument they were lied to...even when their saying it is a lie. Bush blames the CIA and faulty intelligence..viola! He's not to blame. He got bad info. Well, everyone got bad info and voted based on that bad info...viola! they are not to blame either. No one is to blame now but the man who resigned. Tenet......unless we look deeper and keep looking deeper..and keep demanding that someone is held responsible for all this "bad intel"

That's how this whole thing is playing out.

[Minstrel Boy]

11. Back in Iran/Contra days, Cheney called Kerry a "conspiracy theorist."

God, he'd better be.

[Malva Zebrina]

12. this is pure evil

plain and simple. Absolute evil--and I am going to say absolute Hitleresque, fascist evil. Lies mean nothing at all to this evil prick. I have nothing but the utmost contempt for this man.

It is really sad how Iraq happened and additionally, it is really sad that only a few are able to stand up and be proud and say they voted against the war. That is sad--because obviously here, Cheney has made the "checkmate" move.

[amber dog democrat]

14. If we are to

"rid the world of a gathering threat to our peace and security."

then this administration needs to go.

I am banking on the premise that Cheney 's days in power are numbered.

[Solly Mack]

15. "Cheney has made the "checkmate" move"

Pretty much sums it up

[AlGore-08.com]

26. Bingo: Team Smirk have got them nailed on this

This is one of the reasons they pushed the "Kerry is a flip flopper" meme so hard, to pave the way for this.

Because people who oppose the war 100% are reminded of a vote that makes them less likely to support Kerry, and people who support the war or have no opinion about it get "proof" that Kerry is a "flip-flopper who will say anything to get elected". And every attempt to explain the nuances of that vote only make it look more like a flip-flop to most folks.

[earthside]

13. Trying to Pass the Buck

All "Chickenhawk" Cheney is doing is trying to pass the buck; to smear other people with his own irresponsibility for the deaths of thousands of innocents.

The implications of the Senate Select Committee's report and the coming Butler report in Britain are actually of such enormous impact that I think it is going to take a while for it all to sink in to the American people.

But it will sink in eventually.

Read my commentary on www.Earthside.com "Shame and Discgrace Upon Our Nation" to see how significant the truth is for our nation.

[MidwestTransplant]

16. Kerry: Cheney, you are history!

[Parche]

17. cheney

We now have to rid the World of a gathering threat to our
peace and security, vote them out of office
KERRY/ EDWARDS 2004

[Dr Fate]

18. Subject: Um - which documents were forged by Democrats?

Text:

Which Democrats lied to congress & the UN?

No sale.

[xray s]

19. Hey Cheney! what about Osama?

Did you forget about HIM?

If so, just check your CIA files, circa 1980-1992. Look under "Freedom Fighter".

And while your at it, check out the file on Saddam. You will find it under "Good Guys to Have on Our Side" and "WMD Customers".

Yeah, we need some history lessons in this country...that's for SURE!

[MrPrax]

20. Easy to Score...No Effort Really

Bush League indeed

"Senator Kerry and Senator Edwards are criticizing the president for looking at the same information that they did and coming to the same conclusion that they did. If the president was right, and he was, then they are simply trying to rewrite history for their own political purposes," Cheney said.

To which the reply is, "I, like many many in Congress gave President Bush a mandate. We did the right thing and endorsed the President's measure.
Only NOW do we know that this endorsement was based on lies, subterfuge and deceit.
Even NOW under a full disclosure of the Senate, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush still insist there are links between AQ and Iraq, we NOW the President and Vice President insist...etc etc..."

This shit writes itself...too bad Kerry won't take the gloves off

[Jack Rabbit]

21. What horsepucky!!

Mr. Cheney conveniently leaves out that even the best spin put on the Roberts committee report says that the intelligence was wrong. The report did not go nearly so far as to say why it was wrong -- namely, that neoconservatives including Cheney himself were making damn sure it was wrong.

If Kerry and Edwards are to be faulted, it is for not doing their own fact checking and seeing that the intelligence was being cooked, that it was doubtful that Saddam had WMDs in significant numbers (in fact, he didn't have any) and that the claims that Saddam had a relationship with al Qaida was simply absurd. The 10 million of us worldwide who marched against the war in February 2003 knew that. I have numerous times pointed to accounts in the media that supported these accusations. Granted, the sources were mostly foreign, but respectable like the BBC and the Guardian Utd, and also the testimony of former UN chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter that Congress would not hear even when offered.

It is Bush, Cheney and the neoconservatives who are attempting to rewrite history. They are every bit as outrageous in their attempts as Stalin-era Soviet "historians".

[wishlist]

22. On CNN's Larry King Kerry said if he had been given the complete reports

with all the details showing the sources of the intel that Bush had access to, Kerry would have known that the sources weren't reliable however the Senators were not given complete information.

[Retrograde]

23. well, he should know

isn't this standard Buscheney operating procedure?

[cornfedyank]

24. even if you give shrub et al that assumption..they still failed

they get an F because they had no plan beyond "happy iraqis waving flowers". The intel sgt used to stress, "if you don't have an escape and evasion route, then you don't have a Plan". that imo has to be the retort to "well we all saw the same info".

They stovepiped the info and they did not listen to the people that plan all the time. and then they refuse to pay for their optional war. miserable failure

"plan? there ain't no plan." --pig killer Mad max beyond thunderdome
same line works for shrub et al

[Lisa]

25. and how many times have the Bush gang done that very thing?

Pretending that they actually WON the election ... erasing the USA's signature from the Kyoto protocol ... they're so big on pretending that certain parts of US history (the Bill of Rights for example) were just in our imagination. Down the memory hole!

[nolabels]

27. The arrogance is quite astounding also

In that other story from CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/12/cheney.dems.ap/index.html


goes on with this

That comment led Steve Schmidt, the spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, to accuse Kerry of being reckless and irresponsible
(snip)


...“bring ’em on,” “is” the Bush doctrine! Unlike Clinton Bush understands What “is” Means
by Craig B Hulet? Monday January 26, 2004 at 03:25 PM
[e-mail] 360-288-2652 P.O. Box 710, Amanda Park WA 98526

In every age...the ultimate sources of war are the beliefs of those in power: their idea about what is of most fundamental importance and may therefore ultimately be worth a war. -- Evan Luard, International War
http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2004/01/15243_comment.php


To check a little history:

http://www.allhatnocattle.net/7-9-03-god-threatens-george-bush.htm

How Iraq Echoes Vietnam

By Pat M. Holt

2003-07-03 WASHINGTON - This war in Iraq is beginning to look enough like Vietnam to bring back memories of those turbulent years from long ago. The Vietnam War stretched through the administrations of Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.

Eisenhower's involvement was mostly symbolic. U.S. military forces had a token presence and few advisers. Kennedy had a few more, but unrest was beginning to simmer. Kennedy sent Army Gen. Matthew Ridgway and civilian adviser Walt Rostow to Vietnam to report. Their separate reports disagreed so sharply that the president asked if they'd been to the same country. Quarrelsome religious sects appeared in Vietnam as well as some political violence. The prime minister of South Vietnam was assassinated shortly before Kennedy was in November 1963. Johnson came to office suddenly and devoutly wishing to get out of Vietnam but not knowing how. He feared being charged with having led the "only war America ever lost."

Then came the Gulf of Tonkin incident. On Aug. 2, 1964, the U.S. destroyer Maddox reported that it had been attacked while it was on what the Navy described as a routine patrol off the North Vietnamese coast. It was joined by the destroyer C. Turner Joy, and both ships reported further attacks Aug. 4. There was no damage to the destroyers, nor casualties to their crews, but Johnson ordered air strikes against North Vietnam. He also asked Congress for a joint resolution authorizing him to "take all necessary measure to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to repel further aggression." Congress passed the resolution, nearly unanimously, within two days. (Both Presidents Bush received similar authority before attacking Iraq in 1991 and 2003, respectively.)

One reason the Vietnam resolution got heavy Democratic support was that the 1964 presidential race was shaping up between President Johnson and Sen. Barry Goldwater, the conservative Arizona Republican who was talking about "bombing Vietnam back to the Stone Age." Compared with that, the Johnson response to Tonkin looked moderate. But it led to increasing troop levels, to more bombing of the North, to more casualties, draft calls, and protests on campuses
(snip)
http://publicbroadcasting.net/opb/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=517337

[wurzel]

28. The fact is Cheney is right!

From what I understand today this information was available to Democrats. But since it was not available to their staffs so they actually had to go read it themselves, they just didn't bother. Bush relied on the Dems being lazy and spineless and they were. They are ALL now rewriting history.

[BeFree]

31. No, cheney is wrong

The info available to boosh was not the same made available the congress. The whitehouse is privy to much more info than would be shown members of congress.

Besides, what Kerry is saying is the WAY the invasion was handled was totally mismanaged. Besides the points that the IWR was mostly ignored by boosh, the fact that the UN did not condone invasion, and boosh has no plan for the peace, Kerry also claims boosh gang lied to the congress and the American people.

Cheney is in no way close to being correct.

[wurzel]

32. Since Congress never bothered to read it we'll never really know.

If they had read even what was available they would never have voted to support Bush. Cheney can shove their collective nose in that forever. That is why the Dems are going along with the Repubs with all this garbage about CIA "misinformation" and "mind-set". They have to go along because they can't admit they never read the reports in the first place. AND THEY WERE AVAILABLE. They voted for the war the same way they voted for the Patriot act. In total self-inflicted ignorance. This is why Cheney and Bush are never really challenged on this. Instead the Dems talk about the way a war is being conducted, that had they done their homework, would have started.

[BeFree]

33. You mean to say...

You think the Congress was given ALL the information needed to make an informed decision? If that's the case, I've got this wonderful bridge for sale, just for you....

Look, congress wanted the UN inspectors to go into Iraq. The inspectors did, looking for weapons. However, they never got to finish their report, boosh invaded way before all the facts were in. Boosh kept the facts from us and congress.

So just stop it with the blaming the Dems and saying Cheney was right. He's a liar. The whole damn gig is one big lie and it's a damn shame some enable the lie to continue, eh?

[wurzel]

34. Of course they were not given ALL the information.

But a 92 page document of the intelligence report was made available to Congress. Almost none of the members showed up to read it. That's a fact! Just like they didn't bother to read the "Patriot Act" they now complain about. Now they are in a jam. Cheney knows this. And again they are unable to hold Bush and Cheney accountable. Instead they are left blaming the CIA. that was run by a Democrat.

[TEXASYANKEE]

30. I wish just ONE pundit would ask him

HOW WAS IRAQ A "GATHERING THREAT TO OUR PEACE AND SECURITY"?????

Shrub and Cheney and the rest of those a-holes keep pimping Saddam's Iraq like it really WAS a threat to us. Shameless. And the press whores are as much to blame as this misAdministration. Maybe if someone would stand up to them, they wouldn't shamelessly lie to the American people.