Dick Cheney's America

Vice President Cheney gave the commencement speech at the West Point graduation last week. Besides the usual fear/war-mongering, Cheney also displayed his usual disdain for the very principles these graduates are supposedly swearing an oath to defend. Quote-

"As Army officers on duty in the war on terror, you will now face enemies who oppose and despise everything you know to be right, every notion of upright conduct and character, and every belief you consider worth fighting for and living for. Capture one of these killers, and he'll be quick to demand the protections of the Geneva Convention and the Constitution of the United States. Yet when they wage attacks or take captives, their delicate sensibilities seem to fall away."

Get that? He is describing the Geneva Convention and the Constitution as obstacles to be overcome in wartime... which is forever, in the Cheney worldview (and if the former doesn't apply in wartime, when does it apply?).

That our Vice President continues to say such radical things is one thing, but to deliver such an address to the soldiers of tomorrow at one of our nation's premier military schools is scandalous.

I can only hope-- if naively-- that the graduates see Cheney's words as the unamerican garbage they are. Of course, we've seen far too many men and women willing to follow the draconian policies this administration has crafted in secret. Since Congress has not seen fit to act here, all we can do is pound our fists and continue to wait patiently until 2009.