Bravo Cheney !

Walking toward the departure gate at Heathrow I noticed Dick Cheney speaking on one of the TV screens. I became instantly riveted to what he was saying, basically on a theme of good-versus- evil and having the courage to call evil by its name.

The full text of his speech is well worth reading, and the speech can be seen on YouTube at this link.

Here's a snippet:

This recruitment-tool theory has become something of a mantra lately, including from the president himself. And after a familiar fashion, it excuses the violent and blames America for the evil that others do. It's another version of that same old refrain from the left, We brought it on ourselves.

It is much closer to the truth that terrorists hate this country precisely because of the values we profess and seek to live by, not by some alleged failure to do so. Nor are terrorists or those who see them as victims exactly the best judges of America's moral standards one way or the other.

Critics of our policies are given to lecturing on the theme of being consistent with American values, but no moral value held dear by the American people obliges public servants to sacrifice innocent lives to spare a captured terrorist from unpleasant things. And when an entire population is targeted by a terror network, nothing is more consistent with American values than to stop them.

As a practical matter, terrorists may lack much, but they've never lacked for grievances against the United States. Our belief in freedom of speech and religion, our belief in equal rights for women, our support for Israel, our cultural and political influence in the world, these are the true sources of resentment, all mixed in with the lies and conspiracy theories of radical clerics.

These recruitment tools were in vigorous use throughout the 1990s, and they were sufficient to motivate the 19 recruits who boarded those planes on September 11, 2001.

Watching the speech on that TV, I noticed that it was captioned 'BBC - Live'.
Listening to Cheney's withering attack on Obama (and on the New York Times) I couldn't help wondering how the BBC could be giving this any kind of airing.

The answer came just moments later, halfway through the speech.
'And now, back to the studio....'