WHAT MUST MR. CHENEY DO FOR MR. BUSH TO DISOWN HIM - SHOOT SOMEBODY?

[kpete]

WHAT MUST MR. CHENEY DO FOR MR. BUSH TO DISOWN HIM - SHOOT SOMEBODY?

by Fred Branfman/Huffpo

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It is generally agreed that Mr. Cheney is “the most powerful Vice-President in history.” He is so powerful because the President has heeded Cheney’s advice on terrorism, Iraq, military matters, Executive Power and energy. As a direct result of this exercise of power by Mr. Cheney:

-- the United States is far weaker and our enemies far stronger than at the time since 9/11, and we are in far greater danger of another attack that could kill many more Americans and threaten democracy as we've known it. As the two former National Security Council anti-terrorism staffers and authors of The Next Attack – endorsed by former President Bill Clinton - put it, “We are losing. Four years and two wars after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, America is heading for a repeat of the events of that day, or perhaps something worse. Against our most dangerous foe, our strategic position is weakening." And as the ex-Republican Governor Mr. Bush appointed to head his own 9/11 Commission, Tom Kean, put it a few months ago, "It seems that the safety of the American people is not very high on Washington's priority list."

-- Mr. Bush is mistrusted by a majority of the American people at home, hated abroad, and is thus incapable of functioning effectively as either a domestic or world leader of the war on terror. His is a failed Presidency by the criterion he himself set: success in fighting a “global war on terror.”

Although there are signs that Mr. Bush may be listening more to Secretary of State Rice now on Israel and Iran, Mr. Cheney remains the dominant force on many of the Administration's central issues: terrorism, Iraq, the U.S. military, Executive Power, and energy. Mr. Bush faces any number of extremely important decisions in these areas over the next 3 years, including whether and/or how to try and continue his failed occupation of Iraq with fewer U.S. troops; how to deal with a possible civil war in Iraq; whether to continue torturing and imprisoning people without evidence, even though doing so geometrically increases the number of our enemies and their desire to do us harm; and preventing another 9/11.

If the President continues to rely on Mr. Cheney for advice on these issues, after the Vice-President's advice to date has practically destroyed his Administration, it will suggest that Mr. Bush is incapable of functioning on his own as President.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fred-branfman/what-must-mr-cheney-do-f_b_16043.html