10 Years Ago: Dick Cheney's astonishing pro-war campaign

From ABC News, 3/24/08:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Politics/story?id=4513250&page=1

Cheney on Iraq: 'It's Important to Win'

Vice President Discusses Grim Milestone of 4,000 U.S. Dead in
Five-Year Iraq War

By MARTHA RADDATZ, ELY BROWN and JENNIFER PARKER

In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Vice President Dick Cheney
was asked what effect the grim milestone of at least 4,000 U.S. deaths
in the five-year Iraq war might have on the nation.

Noting the burden placed on military families, the vice president said
the biggest burden is carried by President George W. Bush, who made
the decision to commit US troops to war, and reminded the public that
U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan volunteered for duty.

________________________________________________

That really is one astonishing interview.  In that one short interview, Dick Cheney managed to tell the American people that their opinions mean absolutely nothing to him.  In the same interview, he said that the 4,000 American Iraq war dead were all of volunteer soldiers.  They knew what they were getting into when they signed up, right?  It's their own faults. One week before, Cheney had answered "So?" when he was informed that 2/3 of the American public say the war was not worth fighting.  [verify it]

Ten years ago, in multiple interviews, US Vice-President Dick Cheney essentially told the American people to take their opinions and shove 'em you-know-where.

And he had the nerve to state that "the president carries the biggest burden for the war."  Not the 4,000 American soldiers who had died, or the 35,000+ who had been wounded, or their families ... no, it was the President who had sacrificed and suffered.  It was the President who lied his nation into this now 15-year-long war that Americans should all be concerned about; it was the pain and suffering of President George W. Bush that mattered most.

What an utterly contemptuous attitude that was.   I believe Americans show no self-respect when they're willing to allow leaders like this to keep their country involved in a war like Iraq.

As for Dick Cheney ... I'll call him what he is.  He's a gutless, draft-dodging, coward. 

He's a chickenhawk.  And he's a war criminal.

And Americans who accepted leaders like that are no better than he is.