Cheney: Direct threats require 'decisive action' (nations must use force)

[diamond14]

Cheney: Direct threats require 'decisive action'
Says nations must be prepared to use force if diplomacy fails

Associated Press
DAVOS, Switzerland
-snips-

“We must act with all urgency this danger demands,” Cheney said.
Applause was polite.....

"Direct threats require decisive action,” Cheney told the more than 1,500 world political, corporate and opinion leaders who gathered here in eastern Switzerland to discuss security, economic and other global issues.

A Finnish lawmaker, Eva Biaudet, said she was shocked by the “militarism” of Cheney’s speech and his demand that Europe increase its military capabilities. “HIS SOLUTION FOR REACHING DEMOCRACY WAS ARMAMENTS (emphasis added), which is not really the European solution,” she said. “He forgot the development part and it worries me.”

It also comes as the U.S. death toll in Iraq has topped 500.

Meanwhile, thousands of Iraqis, led by the country’s most powerful Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, are demonstrating in the streets, demanding that direct elections, not caucuses, be held to select delegates for a transitional government.





http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4047585/

[Dover]

1. Cheney is the only DIRECT THREAT to this nation.....

but perhaps we should take his advice on how to deal with such threats.

[Demonaut]

15. Zieg Heil!!

Cheneyfuhrer has shpoken!

[jbfam4]

2. What direct threats?

Cheney hasn't gotten the memo and is singing on the wrong page.

[arcane1]

3. and just who is the "direct threat", DICK???

it damn sure wasn't your buddy Saddam! So why the decisive action? Did his "threat" involve switching to the Euro? Is Chavez going to be a terrorist Hitler now?

What threatens The Dick is not the same as what threatenes the rest of us. Sadly, his decisive action to direct threats to his bank account end up killing US

Fuck you, DICK

:grr:

[tabasco]

4. Cheney will fight to the last drop of YOUR blood !

Fat little coward would never serve, but will send your boys and girls to die for his $$$$$$$$$$$$. Evil, malignant, and criminal man.

[Minstrel Boy]

5. “We must act with all urgency this danger demands”

said the world to itself, as its greatest direct threat returned to his undisclosed location.

[Newsjock]

6. Full transcript of Cheney's remarks, including Q&A

Cheney took Q&A from the World Economic Forum after his speech. CNN showed it (early early this morning) until Cheney got a tough question -- the one about O'Neill -- then they CUT AWAY.

However, the White House has released what appears to be a full transcript of Cheney's speech, including some tough Q&A, with one about whether we think we're an empire now.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/01/20040124-1.html

PROFESSOR SCHWAB: Vice President Cheney, I may take a quote in your Christmas card. Actually, you quote, Benjamin Franklin, and he said, "If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?" Do you consider the United States to be an empire? And every empire has something which is threatening to the people on the street. What can the United States to be perceived as a non-threatening empire by those who look for freedom, but as a threatening empire for those who threaten our security?

THE VICE PRESIDENT: First of all, that quote was selected by my wife. (Laughter.) She should have to explain why it was on the Christmas card. Secondly, it refers to an incident that occurred in our Constitutional Convention, when Franklin was speaking about the importance of some recognition of the importance of the Almighty in the affairs of man.

And it did not refer, or should not be taken as some kind of indication that the United States today sees itself as an empire. I think that there are some fundamental differences between the United States today, the way we operate, the things we believe in, the way we've conducted ourselves over the course of our history that distinguish us, if you will, from what might be identified as an empire. We do believe very deeply in democratic principles and practices.

We have had, on occasion in the past, the opportunity to deploy massive military forces, and to put them in the heart of Europe, in the heart of Asia, and then, having done that, to create democracies where previously there had been dictatorships and empires, and then withdraw to our own shores, without any aggrandizement, in terms of territory or any of the other trappings of empire, if you will, I guess. And I think from the standpoint of history, we're unique, in that regard.

So I wouldn't let the Benjamin Franklin quote be misinterpreted as somehow it's intended now to talk about the United States as an empire. We don't see ourselves in that light, we don't believe we've acted that way. I would argue that there are millions of people in the world today who are free of tyranny and have the opportunity to live in freedom and under democracies because of past activities of the United States. I would refer to our friend here from Bosnia as one example. And if we were to empire, we would currently preside over a much greater piece of the Earth's surface than we do. That's not the way we operate.

[truthisfreedom]

7. military industrial complex wants every last bit of machinery put to use

to make sure they get to build more.

[ixion]

8. diplomacy means nothing to the BFEE

and the development part IS the military industrial complex. That's why he wants the EU to increase military. More contracts for the Carlyle Group.

[are_we_united_yet]

9. Is this a candidate for a 2004 pink slip or what?

[JoblessRecovery]

16. From your lips to Gods ears

We can't afford another 4 years of this

[diamond14]

18. it could be anytime that God calls cheney...his heart has been

a real mess for years, after suffering through 5 heart attacks and several operations....cheney currently maintaining life on a implanted heart defibulator that SHOCKS him when needed, to stop the wild fluctuations of his heart beat....

people in cheney's condition can just stop beating anytime...and exit...

and it doesn't look like cheney has followed the usual medical advice for heart patients....loose weight...stop drinking...slow down...remove stress from your life....

it could be anytime now...

[leesa]

10. The irony is that Bush and Cheney have directly threatened

nearly every nation on earth when they published their agenda for the administration which said we would attack anyone who threatened us by attempting to develop their military anywhere near the size of ours, and even attack militarily those countries who boycotted us or imposed embargoes on the US. By his logic, they should be bombing us.

[CHIMO]

11. And

I would add probably has been since the beginning of time. And as a threat is being developed it will result in a natural reaction.

If threats are not removed then reactions will continue to remove the threat.

[amber dog democrat]

12. easy for him to say

he's not making any sacrafices - but others do.

[loudnclear]

13. I guess he means that we are now "fair game" for any country that

regards us as a threat?

[CHIMO]

14. Methinks That All

Nations have that view.
Preemptive action.

[scarface2004]

17. must be off his meds...

as usual. dick is totally insaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane!!

[Snappy]

19. Lies

"And if we were to empire, we would currently preside over a much greater piece of the Earth's surface than we do."

How many countries have US Military bases?

I believe that Cheney is the President of the USA.

[goforit]

20. Bam Bam ..............No thankyou SAM!!!!!!!!!

He belongs in a white straight Jacket!!!!!!!

Nothing but nuts!!!!!

[teryang]

21. They should have arrested him

...and marched him off to Nuremburg for his trial for committing crimes against humanity.

[diamond14]

22. 'hell' has a very special place, reserved for cheney when he

checks out....

taking 5 draft deferments as a young men to avoid serving in the Vietnam war...cheney is way-over-the-top in pushing his mad war agendas of KILLING KILLING and more KILLING....these policies need to be changed and cheney belongs in the Haig as a war criminal who has murdered thousands of innocent people and sent 512 of OUR soldiers to their deaths....

[Judi Lynn]

23. Cheney doesn't get paid if diplomacy DOES work.

He has nothing to look forward to if there's no killing to be done.

[are_we_united_yet]

24. OK my thought:

Shamelessly, Cheney begs for UN intervention in Iraq so Washington deploy troops in Syria, Iran and North Korea.

Brilliant.