Former Vice President Dick Cheney gave a long interview to CNN's John King this morning. Cheney repeated his previous assertions that President Obama's policies on terrorism have made the country less safe.
Cheney praised the Bush administration's terrorism efforts. "I think those programs were absolutely essential to the success we enjoy, of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11," he said.
David N: Of course, this would be a dubious thesis at best, given that, logically speaking, Cheney and Bush might as well proclaim that they prevented any further Hurricanes after Katrina. But it's particularly hollow in light of that 2006 National Intelligence Estimate, which concluded that the decision to invade Iraq, and the Bush administration's mishandling of the post-invasion occupation, had made America more vulnerable to terrorist attack over the long term:
A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Thanks for nothing, Dick.
