Breakthrough Institute

« October 2011 »

Steal This Meme: Cheney's War on Terror Ended Long Ago Because it Didn't Work
One by one, his former colleagues and allies are rejecting his spin and openly questioning his judgments and actions.

Share

Dick_Cheney.jpg

Somehow I missed Jack Goldsmith's Times piece explaining that Cheney's War on Terror policies were ultimately counterproductive even for the purposes of bolstering executive power. In it he cites both Bush and Rumsfeld expressing regrets for taking Cheney's advice to secretly and unilaterally create CT policy.

Cheney, of course, is "'not inclined to make any mea culpas."

As Goldsmith writes:

He has instead deflected the failures of his philosophy by maintaining that Barack Obama embraced his policies. Obama did continue many of the Bush administration counterterrorism policies as they stood in January 2009. But the 2009 policies Obama inherited were not Cheney policies. They were the products of a four-year pushback against those policies...

After the killing of al-Awlaki, Cheney and his daughter stepped up to the mic to demand an apology from Obama. Their logic: Obama had criticized some of their policies, but was also using some of their other policies (sort of). And that's not fair.

John McCain responds with readily apparent exasperation to a question about whether Obama owes Cheney or Bush an apology: "About what?" He also notes that the so-called 'enhanced' interrogation program netted no valuable information.



 

Bringing Science to Security

We bring cutting edge science to questions of national security and counterterrorism.

Click here to find out more.

In the News

Science of Security narrates the End of the War on Terror in The ATLANTIC's special section on 9/11.

Congressional Quarterly Researcher quotes "CT Since 9/11" and Nick Adams on Obama Administration's recent counter-radicalization policy memo.

Reader's Digest cites "CT Since 9/11" report.

Science of Security op-ed appears in Roll Call

Findings from CT Since 9/11 cited in New York Times.

The Science of Security releases new report: "Counter-terrorism Since 9/11"

Recent Blog Posts

Security Establishment Says 'No Thanks' to Indefinite Detention Power

Steal This Meme: Cheney's War on Terror Ended Long Ago Because it Didn't Work

The Emergence of Non-Jeffersonian Democracy in the MENA Region

Biden Gets It on So-called 'Enhanced' Interrogation

Ali Soufan's Book is Out

Archives

Categories

Reports

Counterterrorism Since 9/11

Sites of Interest

START

NYU-CLS Centerline

Anthropoliteia

The AfPak Channel

Revolutionology

CTC

Tact_and_Tactics

Triangle Center

Minerva Initiative

Danger Room

Open Society

Authors

Upcoming Events

None scheduled... but check back soon.


Steal This Meme: Cheney's War on Terror Ended Long Ago Because it Didn't Work

October 2011