There is little that can be added to the bizarre story of Dick Cheney shooting a hunting buddy in his face and heart. His interest in killing tiny birds may reinforce the Vice-President’s image as a pro-hunting American. But the most interesting thing he told Brit Hume in Hume’s kid-gloves Fox TV interview is that that fateful Saturday afternoon was one of the worst days in the Vice President’s rather successful life.
One cannot help but think of 9/11 as a pretty bad day. Or that for the thousands of wounded and killed in Iraq there are a whole bunch of pretty bad days. I wonder what a young man or woman, risking it all on the front line in Iraq, Africa or Afghanistan thought about this out of touch old man describing an accident on a rich man’s outing as one of the worst days of his life.
Had I been Cheney it would have been the day I found out I sent young men and women to die to stop WMD’s that never existed. I think for me it would have been the day I became so married to my wrong intelligence that I would not back down and still allowed Americans to die for my mistake. My colleagues in the media continue to beat Cheney up for the wrong reasons. Anyone can kill someone or injure someone in an accident. But when you do it out of pride and the policy is deliberate that is something else.
The Vice-President is as close to a creation of corporate America as we have ever had in office. His attitude toward those who pay the biggest price and burden for his foreign policy is much like a CEO who comes and guts a company. Lyndon Johnson had the decency to suffer over every lost service person in Vietnam. He was haunted by his policy and what it meant to America. A little of that human behavior would be a welcome sign of humanity from Cheney. He show more remorse over injuring his rich hunting buddy and GOP fundraiser then he has ever shown for the kids he and the President have sent through the meat grinder of Iraq. He has yet to apologize to the American public for making Iran stronger by providing that regime with a Shi’a controlled Islamic Republic on its border. Cheney should be remorseful but not for a hunting accident. But, the way President Bush thinks, I am sure there is a Medal of Freedom awaiting Dick Cheney.
Joseph Trento has spent more than 35 years as an investigative journalist, working with both print and broadcast outlets and writing extensively. Before joining the National Security News Service in 1991, Trento worked for CNN's Special Assignment Unit, the Wilmington News Journal, and prominent journalist Jack Anderson. Trento has received six Pulitzer nominations and is the author of five books, including Prelude to Terror, The Secret History of the CIA, Widows, and Prescription for Disaster. Joe currently serves as the editor of DCBureau.org.
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