Former Vice President Dick Cheney praised the Obama administration Sunday for using a drone strike to kill American-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, but said President Barack Obama should now reverse past criticism of former President George W. Bush’s actions against suspected terrorists.
Al-Awlaki — an American whose fluency in English and technology made him one of the top terrorist recruiters in the world — was killed Friday in Yemen, according to U.S. and Yemeni government officials.
The strike also killed Samir Khan, an American of Pakistani origin, and two others who were in the same vehicle as al-Awlaki, said the U.S. official, who was briefed by the CIA. Khan specialized in computer programming for al Qaeda and authored the terror network’s online magazine, Inspire.
“I think it was a very good strike. I think it was justified,” Cheney told CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union.” But “I’m waiting for the administration to go back and correct something they said two years ago when they criticized us for ‘overreacting’ to the events of 9/11.”
The Obama administration has “clearly … moved in the direction of taking robust action when they feel it is justified,” Cheney said.
Cheney’s daughter, Liz Cheney, went a step further, saying Obama “in effect said that we had walked away from (America’s) ideals.”
“I think he did tremendous damage,” Liz Cheney said. “I think he slandered the nation and I think he owes an apology to the American people.”
When asked by Crowley if Dick Cheney also wants an apology, the former vice president replied, “Well, I would. I think that would be not for me, but I think for the Bush administration.”
Republican critics of the administration claim it is hypocritical for Obama to approve the killing of Americans without due process while criticizing Bush officials for signing off on the use of so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” such as waterboarding.
The use of such techniques has been banned by Obama.
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So it turns out that Obama is following Bush, who followed Clinton, who followed Bush, who followed… Eisenhower who followed Truman who followed Roosevelt – in supporting a non-partisan foreign policy.
Actually, if you listened to Obama before the election, he was just as much an internationalist as Bush. There are some isolationists in both parties (e.g.Ron Paul, Denis Kucinich), but they aren’t very important.
Apparently Cheney is obsessed with foreign policy. He should also complement Obama with following Bush’s economic policy (print lots of money, bail out your friends and contributors and pass it off as stimulating the economy).