There are nine decades left until the 21st century is completed and the world moves into the 22nd. However, I will venture to say that this century will know no war criminal more contemptible than Dick Cheney. The terror of 11 September 2001 killed around 3,000 Americans, and the former US vice president was responsible for the deaths of 6,000 American soldiers, for oil and Israel, and the deaths of a million Arabs and Muslims. This murderer should stand before the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, before any accused from Africa or the former Yugoslavia. However, he has not been tried for what he carried out, under the eyes and ears of the entire world. Instead, he writes his memoirs, as if he is a sane human being; one American commentator said Cheney's book contains "deceit of Shakespearean proportions." Cheney's memoirs are entitled "In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir." In the book, he takes pride in the war crimes committed by the Bush-Cheney administration, and apologizes for no mistake. He even accuses the intelligence agencies of being lax in gathering information on Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq and the country's relationship with al-Qaida. These lies were deliberately produced by the Bush administration to justify the war on Iraq. Who is justifying the war? Someone who dodged his draft service during Vietnam; one writer noted that a chapter was missing in the memoirs, on Cheney's disgraceful history of military service. Cheney says in his memoirs that he advised President Bush in June 2007 to launch air strikes to destroy a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor, which is what Israel did in September of that year, certainly after coordinating with the Bush administration and receiving spy satellite information and other things to carry out the mission. I can hate Dick Cheney without lying, as he does. The incitement against attacking Syria was also because of its role in the war on Iraq. I say today that Syria and Iran defeated the US in Iraq, and Cheney's imperial aspirations ended there; he was unable to complete the job against Syria and Iran. What I am writing here is no great secret. The announced policy of the Bush administration was "regime change" in Syria and Iran. There was a strong Iraqi national resistance to the occupation, but the matter was settled by the daily terror attacks against the American presence in Iraq, by al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, and other "Qaidas." The Americans came to think only about how to protect themselves in Iraq, instead of launching other wars. If the regime changes in Syria or Iran one day, the people will have done it, not the US. In those days, the American ambassador in Damascus was Margaret Scobey, before she moved to Cairo. In this column, I quoted her as asking Syria to halt sending terrorists to Iraq and close the centers of bomb-making, and the borders. In this column, I also quoted similar comments, made to me by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. The terror operations, which some might call legitimate resistance, ended America's imperialist dreams, beginning in the Middle East. Once again, Syria and Iran defeated the US in Iraq. I reiterate this because I know it angers people like Cheney, and they will hate such a notion. Barack Obama is better than the entire Bush administration; I find it unjust to compare the two, even though I blame Obama for his policy of "looking forward instead of backward." This gave the war cabal legal immunity from prosecution, which allowed Cheney to write his memoirs in which he rejects any apology by the administration for its error (a deliberate one, naturally) in arguing that Saddam Hussein tried to purchase uranium from Niger. In his memoirs, Cheney attacks George Tenet because he stepped down as CIA director when the crisis broke in 2004; he attacks Colin Powell, the secretary of state, because he openly criticized the administration (and Powell responded in television interviews, exposing Cheney's lie). Cheney records objections to Bush's advisers because they rejected his extremist advice and convinced the president to ignore him; Cheney also has criticisms of some stances by Condoleezza Rice. Everyone is wrong, and Cheney is right, and what is "right" is a disaster. In the past, such a war criminal would be deserved to be crucified on one of the gates of Baghdad; the families of his victims would do the nailing. However, I would like to conclude by confessing to readers that this is the first time that I talk about a book I did not read, since I relied on a few dozen critiques and reviews of the books; I refused to buy Cheney's memoirs and see him benefit from my paying for the book, even if it only cost 50 cents. [email protected]
