This article, titled “Why don’t you shut the hell up, Dick Cheney,” RawStory calls out Dick Cheney and other former Bush Administration officials who have taken to the airwaves in recent weeks to express their opinions regarding the recent advances of the radical islamist group ISIS in Iraq. The author calls Cheney to task, along with fellow Iraq War architects Paul Wolfowitz, Paul Bremer, and Doug Feith, for offering “expert” advice on the current crisis, given their failure to predict the chaos which would result in the aftermath of the American invasion.
The first of the article’s sharpest allegations is launched at Paul Bremer, the man who led the transitional government in Iraq immediately following the invasion. The author points out that it was Bremer’s decision to disband the entire Iraqi military which left the country with “free agents with guns and training in a world without jobs.”
The author concludes with a second damning accusation, attributing Cheney’s support for the war to his involvement with Halliburton, a government contractor which reaped billions in profits after the Iraq invasion, while 500,000 Iraqis and 4,500 Americans lost their lives. To support the allegation that “money changed” Cheney, the author presents a video of Cheney during the first Gulf War, arguing that an occupation of Iraq would result in a “quagmire.”
Overall, this article presents a strong rebuke to the recent claims of “expertise” by Bush era officials commenting on the present crisis in Iraq.