APPARENTLY, ACCORDING TO CHENEY, WE SHOULD HAVE KEPT FIGHTING IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN PRETTY MUCH FOREVER

Fox Nation has posted a clip of Dick Cheney's speech last night at the Hudson Institute, under the rather sociopathic -- and thus quintessentially Ailesian -- headline "Cheney Takes Flamethrower to Obama." Like all Fox News videos, it has an embed code that doesn't work (excellent mastery of the Internet, Mr. Murdoch -- oh, and a damn shame about your now-defuct Daily), but you can watch the clip at the link above, or here, where it's posted under a headline that's, um, even more psychologically revealing: "Cheney Unloads on Obama During Hudson Institute Speech."

In the speech, Cheney says this about the Middle East:

That entire part of the world appears to be, or a good part of it certainly, to be moving in a direction that's fundamentally hostile to long-term U.S. interests. And yet we are -- seem to be unable to influence events in that part of the world, partly because we're headed for the exits, and everybody knows we're headed for the exits.

We pulled out of Iraq -- we didn't even bother to negotiate the stay-behind agreement that was traditional in those kind of relationships. We're well on our way out of Afghanistan. And we have had a president who's been to Cairo; one of the first things he did, to apologize for the U.S. reaction to 9/11, alleged that we had, quote, “overreacted" and fallen away from our basic traditional values.

So I guess we should have prevented the Arab Spring by ceaselessly trying to dig ourselves out of the Iraq and Afghanistan holes Cheney and Bush dug for us with their botched wars. And I guess we were supposed to pay for those endless wars with Bush's tax cuts.

Oh, and the word "overreacted" doesn't appear once in Obama's Cairo speech. It does, however, appear in a Politico story about Obama's Cairo speech, which Cheney has quoted ever since as if he's quoting Obama. From the Politico story:

In comments that will also be portrayed as an apology, Obama told the Cairo audience that the U.S. overreacted to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our ideals," he said. "I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year."

So denouncing torture and Gitmo as "contrary to our ideals" still gets up Cheney's nose. Well, naturally.

Oh, and here's that quote in context:

And finally, just as America can never tolerate violence by extremists, we must never alter or forget our principles. Nine-eleven was an enormous trauma to our country. The fear and anger that it provoked was understandable, but in some cases, it led us to act contrary to our traditions and our ideals. We are taking concrete actions to change course. I have unequivocally prohibited the use of torture by the United States, and I have ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed by early next year. (Applause.)

So America will defend itself, respectful of the sovereignty of nations and the rule of law. And we will do so in partnership with Muslim communities which are also threatened. The sooner the extremists are isolated and unwelcome in Muslim communities, the sooner we will all be safer.

So Obama said that in the context of talking about continuing to fight. Still not enough for Cheney. But why would Cheney familiarize himself with the actual text of Obama's Cairo speech when the right-wing caricature so obvious warms the cockles of his mechanical heart?