In Defense of 'Hateful' Bloggers (and the Rest of the World)

Dick Cheney emerged and, before hopping a plane to Australia, gave an interview with ABC news saying that a Democratic plan to stop the troop surge would "validate al-Qaeda."

"The al-Qaeda strategy is to break the will of the American people, knowing they can't win in a stand-up fight, try to convince us to throw in the towel and come home and then they win because we quit," he said. "I think that is exactly the wrong course to go on. I think that is the course of action that Speaker Pelosi and Jack Murtha support. I think it would be a mistake for the country."

This remarkable statement came on February 21, the day after White House Press Secretary Tony Snow lamented about "hateful" politicizing bloggers.

So, I'll ask you: which is worse? Bloggers being "hateful" or the Vice President? Seriously. The message disseminated from the White House and received by its followers is that if you don't agree with what they're doing you are an unpatriotic, al-Qaeda loving coward. The latest shot has just been fired by the Dick Cheney himself. It's hard not to sound a little hateful when that is what the Vice President thinks of your efforts.

Cheney may have been referring to Pelosi and Murtha but he is talking about the majority of Americans who no longer have faith in the administration's judgment, and do not believe a surge will work. If Pelosi and Murtha are simply doing their job and representing the majority opinion, what type of contempt does Cheney hold the rest of the country in?

And it's not just Pelosi, Murtha, or the majority of Americans who have lost faith in the administration and the troop surge, almost no one anywhere agrees with it.

I think we can accept as certain fact that almost every country now has a vested interest in Iraq, which has gone from being a regional pest to a world-wide crisis.The war in Iraq has ignited turned a small jihadi fire into a conflagration which now produces terrorism world-wide. Therefore every country is carefully considering what to do about Iraq. And what no one is doing is adding more troops. Oh, except us, because, well, we don't want to "quit" or be called "cowards." That is the level we're operating on with so much at stake

I find it interesting that Cheney has flown to Australia where he was greeted by a large protest which led to 10 arrests. Why do the Australians care so much about Dick Cheney? Because his "fever" for Iraq has made their world less safe too. Also interesting is that the Prime Minister of Australia recently blasted Barak Obama's Iraq plan as being helpful to al-Qaeda. Obama responded by saying that if Australia sees war in Iraq, and a strong troop presence in Iraq, as so detrimental to al-Qaeda, why don't they commit 20,000 troops?

The truth is no one sees it that way. Even Britain, our closest ally in this endeavor, is preparing to withdraw its 7,000 troops from the project. If a surge is indeed the right move, how come everyone else has reached the opposite conclusion? Does their decision validate al-Qaeda? Or has the entire world invalidated the hateful and foolish thinking of a man like Dick Cheney? Perhaps, considering he has been wrong on everything, we should be a little annoyed when he continually calls our judgment and patriotism into question. He is an insult not only to us but to the world.