An August
28, 2015 Wall Street Journal commentary by former Vice President Cheney popped up in my Facebook
feed today, titled “Restoring American Exceptionalism.”
Citing
select truths, while plucking patriotic heartstrings, the Vice President argues
forcefully against the recent multilateral (U.S., UK, Germany, France, Russia,
China) accord with Iran that will end decades of economic sanctions against
that country in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.
Cheney
criticizes and labels President Obama as a latter-day Neville Chamberlain, utterly
ignoring that the unstable environment in which the President is compelled to
operate is the direct result of the duplicitous and failed policies in large
part architected by himself.
But first, in
fairness, let’s acknowledge the select truths from the Cheney op-ed:
·
“America has guaranteed freedom,
security and peace for a larger share of humanity than any other nation in all
of history.”
·
“In the 1940s American leadership was
essential to victory in World War II, and the liberation of millions from the
grip of fascism. In the Cold War American leadership guaranteed the survival of
freedom, the liberation of Eastern Europe and the defeat of Soviet
totalitarianism.”
·
“For the better part of a century,
security and freedom for millions of people around the globe have depended on
America’s military, economic, political and diplomatic might.”
·
“As citizens, we have another
obligation. We have a duty to protect our ideals and our freedoms by
safeguarding our history. We must ensure that our children know the truth about
who we are, what we’ve done…”
The Vice
President is disingenuous in his promotion of that final truth. He ignores the truths of what his Administration
did to our country: Waging meaningless wars, sacrificing thousands of young
people to false causes, leaving hundreds of thousands more maimed, our economy weakened, our surplus drained, our national reputation and credibility badly
tarnished.
For
instance, in proclaiming that the President “has abandoned Iraq, leaving a vacuum that is being tragically and
ominously filled by our enemies,” he declines to acknowledge that the
devastation and lawlessness that defines Iraq today is the direct result of a groundless
– senseless - war that he himself engineered.
Cheney’s war
fundamentally demolished whatever shaky stability existed in the region at the time,
facilitating the rising threats of Iran and Isis, and, we should not forget, obscenely
bolstering his own personal wealth.
The Cheney
op-ed goes on to make repeated references to the American “supremacy” that
defined the bi-polar world that existed before the fall of the Soviet Union, steadfastly
ignoring the multi-polar world that emerged in its wake, driven, in part, by
the years of American-won (relative) peace and prosperity during the succeeding
decade defined by the U.S.-led global Internet boom.
Instead, clinging
desperately to yesterday’s concept of American exceptionalism, Cheney rejects the
fundamental geopolitical realities inherent in a multi-polar world, demanding
that America somehow re-birth Cold War preeminence, cramming yesterday’s two-dimensional
square peg exceptionalism into today’s far more complex multi-dimensional round
hole.
In this
context, he blasts Obama:
“…despite the explosive spread of
terrorist ideology and organizations, the establishment of an Islamic State
caliphate in the heart of the Middle East, the proliferation of nuclear
weapons, and increasing threats from Iran, China, North Korea and Russia,
President Obama has departed from this 75-year, largely bipartisan tradition of
ensuring America’s pre-eminence and strength.”
Wrong.
President Obama,
in the context of the severe damage done to America’s reputation and prestige
over the eight years of Bush-Cheney rule, has been working to re-establish
America as a credible partner – an exceptional nation in a multi-polar world in
which exceptionalism is not confined to our fifty States.
Indeed,
Cheney is actually spot on when he writes:
“ As America faces a world of rising
security threats, we must resolve to take action and shouldn’t lose hope. Just
as one president has left a path of destruction in his wake, one president can
rescue us. The right person in the Oval Office can restore America’s strength
and alliances, defeat our enemies, and keep us safe. It won’t be easy. There is
a path forward, but there are difficult decisions to be made and very little
time.”
This is what
Obama has been charged with for the last seven years. And, to some limited
extent, he has achieved success. America
is indeed an exceptional nation, but, in a multi-polar world, we must accept
and work with peers on the global stage.
Like the former
Vice President, I hope that whichever candidate prevails in 2016 can pick up
and carry this standard further forward.
Borrowing again from Mr. Cheney, this will be best and perhaps only
accomplished if, unlike the Vice President, we “ensure that our children know the truth about who we are, what we’ve
done…”
