Dick Cheney Speaks Out

The full test of the speech Dick Cheney gave last night is at The Weekly Standard blog.

The source of this story is Fox News.  Regardless of how you feel about Dick Cheney, he tends to be blunt.  Yesterday, he responded to the Obama Administration's charge by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel that the Obama administration had to form an Afghan war strategy from scratch because the Bush administration hadn't asked any key questions about the war and left it "adrift."

According to Mr. Cheney, the Bush administration had developed a new strategy on the war in Afghanistan before leaving office -- a strategy that he said "bears a striking resemblance" to the one announced by President Obama in March.  The Bush Administration was asked not to reveal their strategy publicly and complied with that request. 

The claim that there was no strategy when President Obama took office has been one of the excuses used to justify the dithering about following the recommendations of General McChrystal. 

According to the article:

"(Rahm) Emanuel told CNN that the president is "asking the questions that have never been asked on the civilian side, the political side, the military side and the strategic side."

"It's clear that basically we had a war for eight years that was going on, that's adrift, that we're beginning at scratch, just at the starting point...and that there's not a security force, an army, and the types of services that are important for the Afghans to become a true partner.""

The lack of honesty and transparency of this administration is unbelievable.  At some point, President Obama needs to stop whining about what everyone else has or hasn't done and step up to the plate and deal with the issues of the day.