Former Vice President Dick Cheney unloaded on President Barack Obama and his administration in a radio interview Monday morning, saying that Obama's recent bow before the Japanese Emperor was "fundamentally harmful" to the United States and indicates that Obama "doesn't fully understand or have the same perception of the US role in the world that most Americans have." Obama's behavior on foreign trips is "very upsetting," Cheney added.
The former vice president, who has been far more publicly outspoken out of office than he was in it, discussed the Obama administration's foreign and national security policies in an interview with conservative talk radio host Scott Hennen. Cheney suggested that Attorney General Eric Holder wants a "show trial" for Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and four other terrorists who will be tried in federal court for their crimes. "I can't for the life of me figure out what Holder's intent here is in having Khalid Sheikh Mohammad tried in civilian court other than to have some kind of show trial. They'll simply use it as a platform to argue their case - they don't have a defense to speak of - it'll be a place for them to stand up and spread the terrible ideology that they adhere to." Cheney noted that members of Congress are pushing to block those civilian trials and encouraged those efforts.
Cheney said of the recent attack at Fort Hood: "I think it clearly is an act of terrorism. I don't know any other way to define it. This is a guy who apparently motivated by some of the same sentiments and philosophy that was behind 9/11, takes a weapon and kills thirteen of our soldiers and wounds many, many others. That strikes me as an act of terror. I don't know of any other way to call it."
The former vice president was very critical of Obama's continued "dithering" on Afghanistan.
I worry that there's a lack of understanding of what this means from the perspective of the troops. You know, if you're out there on the line day in and day out and putting your life at risk on a volunteer basis for the nation and you see the Commander in Chief unable to or appearing to be unable to make a decision about the way forward here - you know that raises serious doubts. Nobody wants to think of volunteering to be participate in that kind of operation.
It may in part be inexperience on Obama's part. It may be that there's confusion on the staff. But I'm not encouraged by it. Presidents are the ones we pay the big bucks to to make these kinds of difficult decisions and it's not as though he had not addressed this before. Remember, he announced a new strategy in March. He was given a strategy that was pretty well put together at the end of our administration as just recommendations. He adopted many of them, announced a strategy in March, reinforced it in August before the speech at the VFW, and then in the fall when it was time to decide based on McChrystal's recommendations, you know, he's dithered.
And Cheney warned that there would be consequences for the drawn-out decisionmaking process. "The delay is not cost-free," he said. "Every day that goes by raises doubts in the minds of our friends in the region about what you're going to do. Raises doubts in the minds of the troops…I worry that the delay and that time that it's taken to come to the decision will be very costly."
Audio of the interview is here.
