I hope that Obama has enough sense not to get involved in Iraq again. Cenk's right about the potential for escalation with inserting US troops. On the other hand, since 2001 we've been sending Special Forces to apparently every country on earth for this or that. So the announced commitment in itself doesn't sound like Obama's trying to pull a "WMD" show like in 2003.
The problem is that Obama's instinct is no so much "first do no harm" as "first, compromise on something with the Republicans." As silly as it sounds, I'm actually surprised at how blindly eager the mainstream media seems to be to hype this current situation and treat clowns like Lindsey Graham as someone that a person in their right mind would listen to about anything to do with Iraq or war.
Yes, I know, there's probably medicine I could take for that.
Cenk also takes on Dark Lord Cheney, If Only Dick Cheney Had Listened To This Iraq War Critic ... 06/17/2014:
On the live show, in a comment at the end of this segment not included in the video above, Cenk says, "The heart of evil is a dark, dark place." That may be the best description of Dick Cheney ever made. They should have included it in that video excerpt.
John Dean had some worthwhile things to say about the Dark Lord in Conservatives Without Conscience (2006):
Nixon, for all his faults, had more of a conscience than Bush and Cheney. They cannot think of a mistake the have made since coming into office, and in doing so display self-righteousness far beyond Nixon's. Bush and Cheney are Double High authoritarians, far above Nixon's league. (p. 183)
Bad judgment is Dick Cheney's trademark. (p. 160)
An examination of Cheney's career reveals that it is marked by upward mobility and downward performance. (p. 159)
[Cheney] is the catalyst, architect, and chief proponent of Bush's authoritarian policies. (p. 161)
Who could conceive of an American vice president demanding that Congress give the president the authority to torture anyone, under any circumstances? Yet that is exactly what Cheney wanted. (p. 163)
Bush and Cheney have ... insulated and isolated themselves so that when they break the law - which they have done repeatedly - they have already built their defense. To protect themselves, they have structured their White House as La Cosa Nostra might have recommended, and surround themselves with men who owe their careers to their bosses. (p. 182)
Authoritarianism is everywhere in the federal government, not because Bush and Cheney do not realize what they [are] doing, but because they are authoritarians, and they are doing what authoritarians do. In the process they have weakened the fabric of democracy, discredited the American government as never before in the eyes of the world, caused people to wonder if terrorists have a legitimate complaint, and taken the United States far from the moral high ground in refusing to abide by basic international law. (p. 176)Tags: dick cheney, iraq war
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