On October 21, 2009 former Vice-president Dick Cheney became the 20th recipient of the "Keeper of the Flame" award from a Neoconservative Washington, D.C. based think tank from the Center for Security Policy. (CSP). Other such notables that have received this award was former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former President Ronald Reagan. Cheney gave a speech that night and during that speech he criticized President Obama's handling of the war in Afghanistan. He criticized the Obama administration of "dithering" and "waffling" with regards to America's war on and occupation of Afghanistan. He stated President Obama should stop dithering and make a decisive decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan. Back in August General Stanley McChrystal had made a request that the administration send 144,000 additional U.S. troops to counter the resurgence of the Taliban. President Obama as of yet hasn't made a decision in regards to that matter.
Ever since President Obama has been inaugurated, Dick Cheney has been one of Obama's chief critics when it comes to the handling of national security issues such as enahanced interrogations and on how Obama has handled both of the wars in the Middle East. I will say up front that President Obama is dithering when it comes to fulfilling McChrystal's request to send additional troops to Afghanistan. I haven't approved of how President Obama has handled both the wars in the Middle East as well as how he's handled national security issues affecting America. However, much of Obama's agenda when it comes to both the wars in the Middle East has been nothing but a continuation of the policies of the previous administration. The only thing that's different is Obama deployed troops from Iraq and sent them to Afghanistan. Even though Obama is at fault for how he's handled this war in Afghanistan, the ultimate blame lies with the Bush administration. President Obama inherited these wars from the Bush administration. Even though I don't approve of Obama's handling the situation, I also disapproved of how the Bush administration handled both of the wars. Those wars could've been won under the Bush administration. I don't believe there was any excuse for President Bush to have handed down these two wars to President Obama.
One of the problems that is apparently evident in politics is hypocrisy. I've seen it with the Democrats and I've also seen it with the Republicans. Neither side is immune from it. I remember back in 2005 and 2006 when the situation in Iraq was very grave. The commanders in Iraq along with some senators such as John McCain stated that the U.S. needed to send additioinal troops to Iraq to stabilize the country. I can remember Rumsfeld and Bush dithering on that issue. It wasn't until 2007 after Bob Gates had been named the new Defense Secretary and the Iraq report had been written that Bush finally agreed to send additional troops to Iraq. At last count our troops are still in Iraq. The war in Afghanistan started in 2001 when Bush was president. Even though U.S. and NATO troops supposedly "routed" the Taliban from power, the job was not completed. We never did destroy the poppy fields in Afghanistan nor stabilize that area. The situation was deteriorating in Afghanistan toward the end of the Bush administration. We had troops in Afghanistan all those years but Bush didn't do what needed to be done to win that war. Al-Qaeda is also still loose in Afghanistan.
How does Dick Cheney have the nerve to criticize President Obama for his handling the war in Afghanistan when the Bush administration didn't finish the job? How can Dick Cheney criticize Obama when the previous administration failed to end both of the wars in the Middle East? I've stated before when it came to the issue of the Gitmo detainees the Bush administration could've set up a military tribunal to have tried all the detainees from Gitmo. Obama wouldn't have had to deal with that issue if the previous administration had properly executed the war on terror. The Bush administration didn't properly execute the war on terror. It was a joke in a number of ways. To hand it over to a socialist like Obama was very foolish. I'm not a fan of Obama but I'm not going to criticize him when he's not at fault either. Obama is at fault for how he's handled the situation since his watch began in January. But the war began under the Bush administration and they're the ones that deserve the bulk of the blame.
I can remember in 2001 after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks how the media wanted to blame the Bush administration for failing to prevent the 9/11 attacks. There was a failure in the breakdown of intelligence during the Bill Clinton administration. Clinton deserves most of the blame for 9/11. Bush deserves a measure of the blame, but he was only in office for eight months when the attacks took place. The 9/11 plot was in the planning stages before Bush took the oath of office. In the case with Afghanistan, this war was ongoing for almost eight years before Obama took office. Therefore, the majority of the blame belongs to the Bush administration. It was nothing but pure hypocrisy on Cheney's part to take potshots at Obama when the Bush administration could've ended the wars under Bush's tenure.
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