Sometimes a person gets it right without even knowing about it. Such is certainly the case with Vice-President Cheney in recent comments in Australia, as reported here by the AP. Cheney calls the Iraq war and aftermath a "remarkable achievement". On the one hand, one is tempted to shout "WHAT?!?" and list all the reasons why such a description is indicative of a deranged mind. That would be easy and fun, but counter-productive. I would prefer to take those two words and apply them across the board to the entire Bush Presidency. If we consider our country in November, 2000, or even on January 19, 2001, and where we are now - my God, but that is a remarkable achievement!
-Signing statments exempting the Executive Branch from following laws passed by Congress, even as lamb-like a Congress as he has had until now.
-Abu-Ghraib
-Torture memo
-Removing the United States from the Kyoto Protocols, the International Criminal Court, the ABM Treaty, the anti-CBW Treaty . . .
-John Ashcroft as AG
-Alberto Gonzalez as AG
-Donald Rumsfeld
-Surpluses that vanished and turned into record deficits
-Going to war, and continuing that war, with inadequte personal and vehicular armor, lying about it, denying you lied about it, then denying you lied that you lied
-Tony Snow
-Stem-cell research de-funding
-Not allowing park service personnel to talk about the age of the Grand Canyon because of pressure from creationists
-the PATRIOT Act
-Guantanamo Bay prison
-3100 American deaths
-54,000 and counting Iraqi deaths
-threatening war, including nuclear war, with Iran
-threatening war, including nuclear war, with pretty much everyone except those who actually have nukes
-"Mission Accomplished"
As for the last one, all I can say is, indeed.
Virtual Tin Cup
