The tangled web we wove

Dick Cheney's been making news recently for his opposition to President Obama's plan to close Guantanamo Bay.

I don't pay much attention to Cheney anymore, but I do like this piece of news. In 2004, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran a story about a Dick Cheney contradiction. Though the vice-present was one of the most ardent supporters of the Iraq War (on the grounds that they had weapons of mass destruction), in 1992 the then Secretary of Defense spoke out clearly and plainly against deposing Saddam Hussein.

The video from YouTube:

But the news that Iraq had WMDs (in the chemical sense) wasn't news -- the Reagan administration had full knowledge what Hussein was doing. Here's a picture of Rumsfeld shaking hands with him in 1983, back when he was a "good guy" using chemical weapons only against Iran. [Source] I find it intriguing how little Saddam Hussein changed between 1983 and 2003 compared with our own rhetoric (and this despite Bush's admiration for Reagan).

This is the legacy we have built for ourselves in the Middle East. Obama's recent speech in Cairo is a good step, but we will be judged for our actions.