29 October (20) 13
This wasn't the first time Cheney had advocated for
war on Iran. Or for torture. Or for assassination by drone. Or for any
other war crime for which he is unlikely ever to be held accountable.
But in all fairness to the former vice president, this
time he really only implied that war on Iran was inevitable. Looking at
the record, however, it's hard to find any war Cheney hasn't found
"inevitable," even if he had to lie to get it started, as he did with
Iraq.
And Cheney's fondness for "inevitable" wars relies not
merely on dishonesty, but more importantly, on personal detachment.
Cheney has wanted all these wars to be inevitable for other people, not
for anyone in his circle. That's the way it's been for Cheney since he
copped out on the war of his generation, getting five deferments from
Viet Nam because he had "other priorities" that included cheering on the
warmakers who were sending more and more of other people's children to
suffer and die in Southeast Asia.
On the other hand, Cheney didn't call for attacking
Iran with nuclear weapons the way Republican billionaire Sheldon Adelson
did a few days earlier at Yeshiva University. Cheney did not object to
nuking Iran either. And he hasn't publicly disagreed with the
octogenarian gambling mogul, so one suspects Cheney would be happy
enough to see this particular smoking gun turn into a mushroom cloud....
...What makes the Cheneys and Adelsons of this world
crazier than ever these days is the possibility - the mere possibility -
that the Obama administration might somehow restore the slightest
normalization with an Islamic nation of 77 million people that hasn't
attacked another sovereign state in more than a hundred years under a
variety of regimes.
For Iranophobes, more than a century of nonaggression
is not enough to offset the fevered dream that Iran might attack
somebody, primarily Israel, despite lacking significant means or
motivation to do so. Remember Senator John McCain invoking the Beach
Boys during his 2008 presidential campaign - "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb
Iran?" Did he ever say why, exactly? No, he said he was joking.
Cheney isn't joking. He's talked about bombing Iran
for years, so much so that the mystery is that he didn't get President
Bush to do it....
