"I don’t think anybody anticipated the level of violence that we’ve encountered," Cheney said.
Does that excuse sound familiar? It should:
"I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees" – George Bush
It’s very odd that this Administration falls back on their own tunnelvision in order to excuse their monumental policy failures. Folks, it’s their job to anticipate these kind of things. And besides, lots of people — myself included — were saying years ago that an invasion of Iraq would lead to sectarian violence.
These people are delusional, and should sit down and read this Harvard study (PDF) about positive illusions and warfare.
Cheney, who apparently didn’t come off well in last night’s must-see Frontline special (which you will be able to see on-line if you missed it), is talking to the press and saying some pretty scary things:
The unpopular Vietnam War and the Watergate scandals allowed Congress to take more authority at the expense of the executive branch, Cheney said. He and the president believed it was important to "have the balance righted, if you will."
"Balance righted?" Things are either balanced, are they are not. By giving more authority to the executive branch to the exclusion of the other branches, you are not "righting" the balance, but creating imbalance. Or at the very least, restruction the balance of power envisioned by the framers of the Constitution.
We have been engaged in a debate about the wisdom of the [NSA domestic eavesdropping] program and whether or not it’s legal, but it clearly is legal, we believe. It is consistent with the Constitution.
Yet, the Bush Administration refuses to allow the issue to be litigated in the courts (you know, it’s the courts who decided whether something is consistent with the Constitution).