Apologise for torture? ‘That’s not appropriate’

Eleanor

Cyclical politics - precisely.

That, above all, is the lesson of the Cam sell-out. You can see it most clearly in Cam's commitment to Labour's spending plans. Cam not only has to do a U-turn, he also has to help stoke a public debate for cuts because there has been so much silence on the subject.

And what a diddums little illustration you've commissioned! Let us remind ourselves of what Cheney said to Obama: that all the speeches haven't made our enemies go away and that if Obama wants to start telling us all about the blasted inmates at Gitmo getting a bucket of water over them, then we should also hear all of the information that was extracted from them.

Of course it doesn't do to mention that in the canting circles of London. And can you imagine The Spectator running an illustration like this:

http://www.americanthinker.com/cartoons/?id=541

Show some spine in that place, for crying out loud.

Hear, hear, Mr Cheney.

David

What a disgusting man. More at home with the Taliban than civilisation.

chris

What a Bloooooody patroit!

Hayward

Five Deferment Dick is the Chief Chickenhawk from the coop of GOP chickenhawks.
An ex VPOTUS who "had more important things to do" so managed 5 deferments during the Viet Nam Farrago. A fine pair of draft evading bookends he and The Faux Tex'n ex POTUS.
Teller and reteller of Big Lies and a war profiteer from all those cosy no bid, cost plus contracts for Halliburton, KBR et al. And still into Big Lies that one concerning how waterboarding saved Los Angeles from an attack! But the time line does not fit.
Not to worry the essence of the Big Lie is to tell it more often, more vociferously and crank up the enormity.
I will not mention the origins of The Big Lie in order that Godwin's Law is not invoked.

Nicholas

Of the President, Mr.Cheney says: "He gets the big bucks and lives in the fancy house." Democratic accountability was clearly not an issue for Cheney and this remark is confirmation of that. How did this dreadful, cynical man ever get so close to occupying the White House himself? It is beyond parody and America (and the world) must surely hope no-one like him ever gets so close to the 'top job' again.

Farhad Nadjm

Waterboarding is right. Obama should waterboard Cheney until he apologises for the multiplicity of crimes he has commited.

Federico Alvarez Plata

What's so in depth about this very superficial interview? Most of what is reported was already published by various papers.

Peggy

It is toughness and common sense like Dick Chaney that saved you Brits from speaking german right now. We love Dick Chaney here in the US, he has served us well. The snarky remarks I have read on this site are obviously by uninformed people who only get their information from the main stream press of the US. We did have saved thousand of Iraq people from shredders, rape, you name it and think of all the little children of Iraq who now are starting to see a better life. Go talk to the families of these kids and ask what they think of the USA and our military. We have lost a lot of brave men fighting for the muslims of this world, and what thank do we get for this, just uninformed snarky brits saying untrue things about President Bush and Chaney. What a sad thing to see how a once great country like England has become what it now is. Too bad you don't have a Chaney of your own to speak up for you country.

N

Wow Daniel Collings, i'm amazed you met Cheneny and lived. I've heard that he is pure molten evil and can kill you by just making eye contact!

David Short

I sometimes wonder if The Spectator has become nazified over the last few years.

Would the writer of this shallow piece or its subject volunteer to be waterboarded?

At least that would show if they had courage beyond the armchair warrior variety.

Hayward

Peggy,
Truth!
As we say Down Under in Australia, Cheney (2 es) would not know truth if it bit him on the bum!
Truth is both of them were serial draft evaders concerning the Viet Nam Farrago. Despite this they were able to say it was "a noble cause" but obviously not noble enough for them to put their bodies where their mouths were.
Five Deferment Dick through some carefully manipulated educational/study exemptions and finally a pregnancy.
The Faux Tex'n through a very dubious entry into the Texas Air National Guard, when he was one of the least qualified. Then with what can be regarded as an even more dubious attendance and service record. As such they were a fine pair of chickenhawks
Speaking as an Australian we did unfortunately have someone like 5DD. He was the late unlamented Prime Mendacious, John Howard aka The Lying Rodent, a cognomen given to him by Senator george Brandis, from his own party. He also maneaged not to put his body on the line inthe Viet Nam Farrago, but again claimed it was a "noble cause" Our very own chickenhawk. He also used The Big Lies concerning WMD, Niger Yellowcake, Aluminium Tubes, links to al Qa'eda, Iraq's links to the incidents of 11 September etc.etc.
Mind you Blair, The Poodle in the UK latched on to all of the above and added The Dodgy Dossier and the 45 minute attack Big Lie to boot.
But then of course he and The Faux Tex'n had both consulted the Lord before visiting "shock and awe" on the Land of Iraq. So it was all of course quite "righteous"

Hayward

Peggy,
"It is toughness and common sense like Dick Chaney that saved you Brits from speaking german right now. "
Wrong again, you forget or possibly may not be aware that it was was the USSR that bore the brunt of the German offensive. For on 22 June 1941 Operation Barbarossa commenced when over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR. The USSR fought them to a stand still and finally rolled the Germancontingent back to Berlin to end WWII.
The early part of that happened well before any US forces had taken part in the European theatre of WWII.

Rupert

Chaney is a patriot! What he says is true. Obama is sacrificing american security just to take the moral high ground and appeal to the terrorists good side. Also the waterboarding worked and saved lifes, Obama wont release the papers that show this.

Anton Cronjé

'Rendition' to The Hague...he could defend his policies there.

Hayward

Rupert,
Like all of the GOP coop of chickenhawks Cheney, aka Five Deferment Dick, is very quick to wrap himself in the flag.
When 5DD and his supporters start spouting about patriotism, "last refuge" and "scoundrel" come to mind.
Such noiseome examples have been exhibited by most of the ex White House Cabal, from POTUS down, remember the swaggering after the plane landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln for "Mission Accomplished"
The only on, a non chickenhawk, who could have really accomplishe that mission was Rumsfeld, an ex USN aviator
It might be time to update to a 21C version" and substitute "chickenhawk" for "scoundrel"

Sheila

Hayward, just as you misrepresent Mr Cheney, so you misrepresent the quote you choose to attack him with (this is the problem with you lightweights).

Boswell did indeed report that Samuel Johnson said patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel on the evening of April 7, 1775. He doesn't provide any context for how the remark arose, so we don't really know for sure what was on Johnson's mind at the time.

Boswell assures us, though, that Johnson was not indicting patriotism in general, only false patriotism.

I know Obamanuts love to twist the facts as much as their messiah but some of us see through it you know. As to false patriotism, Barack 'call-me-Hussein-now-I'm-in-Cairo' Obama looks to be its apotheosis.

Hayward

Sheila,
What's to misrepresent about 5DD.
That he was a serial draft evader. Well yes he was,
That he ran "The Big Lie Project" manufacturing within his own cherry picking "intelligence gathering" concerning Saddam Hussein's links to Usama bin Laden. Yes he did.
But at the 9/11 Commission both the CIA and the DIA said they were unable to prove any links. That he still spouts that and others is true . See below re Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

Furthermore not one single Iraqi involved in the incidents of 11 September but 15 Saudi Wahhabi , 2 from the Gulf States and one each from Egypt and Lebanon. No “shock and awe” visited upon the House of Saud. For it is Saudi Arabia which is the haven of Wahabi Islam, but of course it is a friend of "Big Oil" that includes the Bush family and of course Halliburton. ergo 5DD.

That Halliburton/KBR and other related entities manage to get those nobid, costplus contracts for the Iraq Fiasco. That is true. War is good, good for business.

Most recent of the The Big Lies is Cheney claiming that the water boarding of Khalid Sheik Mohammed obtained information that enabled the U.S government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles in 2002.
An out and out Big Lie as KSM was not captured until 2003.

That is the problem with 5DD. and The Big Lie Project
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

Hayward

Sheila,
Further to "scoundrels" "patriotism" and "chickenhawks" and my own lightweight status.
5DD's stance on the Viet Nam Farrago, “the noble cause” and all right up to the Iraq Fiasco is false patriotism. He does wrap himself in the flag, while happy to have had others do the fighting then and even more so now.

As for lightweight, well here is a little more heft to the argument, for the Johnson quote does in fact have a context.
It concerns Edmund Burke.

Johnson felt Burke a manipulative scoundrel, that comes from Boswell. Burke was a topic of discussion following the "last refuge" remark.
Johnson says,
"Sir, I do not say that he is not honest; but we have no reason to conclude from his political conduct that he is honest."
And later,
"In private life he is a very honest gentleman; but I will not allow him to be so in publick life. People may be honest, though they are doing wrong; that is between their Maker and them. But we, who are suffering by their pernicious conduct, are to destroy them. We are sure that [Burke] acts from interest. We know what his genuine principles were. They who allow their passions to confound the distinctions between right and wrong, are criminal. They may be convinced; but they have not come honestly by their conviction."

Oh and as for an Obamanut?
No just put me down as a loather of chickenhawks past and present, which includes those many in the Coop of GOP Chickenhawks

Bob Macdonald

I've always liked Cheney's iron spine and resoluteness. If a book were ever to be written about his time in government, it would be the greatest book on American political life. Cheney saved our goose and he cooked al Qaeda's. Enjoy your retirement, sir!

Hayward

Mr Macdonald,
5DD may have an iron spine but with a tint of yellow. There was also a definite resoluteness about evading the draft.
As for geese the more he blusters the more 5DD appears like a goose.

Ken Cotterill

Cheney would ahve to be one of the most evil men ever to hold high office. The guy did not follow Bush he led Bush. Cheney is a nasty piece of work, full stop. As for going into "the great man's office" well not sure if your reporter knows anything about Cheney. A dumb article written by a dummy

Glen

'..shown into the great man's office'

It was when I read this that I know I was in possession of an article of rare objectivity. :)

A Fellow American

Thank you VP Cheney for being what so many today fail to be: A Man.

Jonathan Hayes

Unlike a lot of people, I actually read the CIA memos on "enhanced interrogation" and, quite frankly, I don't see what all the yelling is about. It's the same stuff I had done to me in Air Force S.E.R.E. training. No mollycoddling there - one of our class was permanently crippled.

But, of course, no squishy liberal would ever consider joining the military. It might actually be difficult! (Heaven forfend!)

Bean

Ridiculous! Those particular terrorists are war criminals gladly willing to take their own lives. A bucket of water over the head is not torture in that case neither is a threat of imminent Death. The Death penalty is applicable so why should it not be used as a threat. Cheney needs to stick to his guns sure he is scary but that is the No BS attitude necessary to protect this nation from Evil. The administers of interrogations should absolutely not be responsible for following orders. Actual real Criminal offenses against inmates have already been prosecuted in the past, that is not being stopped. But reconsidering old approved techniques as going too far and trying to bring that back up in court is ridiculous. I think the majority of US citizens agree with the standard of waterboarding being used in special cases is accepable. Our country has nothing to apologize for so stop it. We have kept the dream of freedom alive for many oppressed peoples of the world and yes it does come at a cost. A lot of people dont realize that or are willing to make those hard decisions that have saved lives already. Obama has proven himself so far as the weakest president vying for the most government control over the people we have ever had.