One raving dot-com intellectual's take on Richard Cheney. Given the role Cheney's played in the Bush II administration--a role that I, frankly, did not expect, given his excellent service to Gerald Ford in the mid-1970s and his eloquent advocacy of the importance of good staff work and an honest White House decision-making process as necessary to keep arrogant and erratic vice presidents from leading an administration into disastrous policy mistakes--this piece is remarkably, remarkably prescient:
Posted by DeLong at January 27, 2004 12:01 PM | TrackBackChickenhawk Down: "Cheney has the old glint in the eye, the arrogance with the lives of others, the wide-legged certainty of the ferocious old cold warrior that he is. The architect of the western excursion is exactly the kind of man who would never allow a mine shaft gap. And so the idea that the political parties have grown toward one another into a muddled center seems accurate in at least one sense: This time around, the roles of Dean Rusk and Robert McNamara have been cast for a Republican. And it's exactly the role the man was born to play.
Oh where have you gone, Ambrose Beers?
Posted by: Grant Dunham on January 27, 2004 12:11 PMThere's a lot of good stuff in that article.
Particulary where Cheney pretends he knows how to fight a war.
Posted by: KevinNYC on January 27, 2004 12:26 PMFace it, Cheney is an old duck, and his strategy has already been enabled. The damage is done. You should be investigating whom he is grooming for succession, after Bush wins in a landslide 2004. He'll be retired ten months from now on a healthy cash and benefits stipend from his ex Halliburton.
Posted by: Armo Hammen on January 27, 2004 12:30 PMFatalities
American soldiers 376
British soldiers 24
Coalition soldiers 40
---
440 Since May 2
American 515
British 57
Coalition 40
---
612 Since March 20
Wounded
American soldiers ~2940 Since March 20
Note: American forces have fallen to 130,000
British forces have risen to 12,000
Coalition forces have risen to 12,000
Colour me provincial, but I don't understnad half that quote. What is the reference to "the Western excurtsion"? Isn't Iraq East the way we count? And what is a mine shaft gap, and why would anyone allow it?
Posted by: Andrew Brown on January 27, 2004 12:57 PMAndrew Brown: read the link. The "western excursion" was one of Cheney's creative (to put it politely) ideas for the first gulf war. At one point, he thought US forces should try to capture a town in western Iraq and hold it hostage in exchange for an Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait.
Posted by: bza on January 27, 2004 01:15 PMAnd the "mineshaft gap" is a reference to Dr. Strangelove, wherein we find the following reasoning:
The problem with the US administration living deep in a mineshaft after a nuclear war is that the Russian administration themselves will probably be living in their own mineshafts, some of which may even be better than ours. But almost certainly the wily Russians will try to build more mineshafts than we have. The Russians cannot be allowed to open a mineshaft gap!!
Thus the characterization of determined (read: moronic) cold warriors to "never allow a mineshaft gap." We must ensure, the reasoning goes, that we are superior in every possible way, even if it makes no difference.
Posted by: yowsa on January 27, 2004 02:59 PM"Face it, Cheney is an old duck, and his strategy has already been enabled. The damage is done. You should be investigating whom he is grooming for succession, after Bush wins in a landslide 2004. He'll be retired ten months from now on a healthy cash and benefits stipend from his ex Halliburton."
Posted by: Armo Hammen on January 27, 2004 12:30 PM
I don't think so. He's into power, at this point. Otherwise, he'd have stayed on as CEO of Halliburton, and raked it in from the Bush administration. Even not knowing about 9/11, he'd have known that a GOP administration would mean both an increased defense budget, and decreased fiscal responsibility in how it got spent.
Adding in his connections with the Bush family and many other GOP politicians and officials, even a peaceful one-term Bush administration would have put many millions into Cheney's pockets.
He'll stay on as Grand Vizier, until he dies or Bush leaves office.
Posted by: Barry on January 27, 2004 05:16 PMThanks for the mineshaft gap. I got the western excursion from the link, after I had posted; but I would never have found the other reference.