Fighting Words

Cheney Slams Obama for Flight 253

Says he's “trying to pretend we are not at war.”

Dick Cheney thinks President Obama is “trying to pretend we are not at war.” In a statement to Politico, Cheney repeatedly said that the U.S. is at war, "and when President Obama pretends we aren't, it makes us less safe," adding that Obama doesn't want to admit the nation is at war because "it doesn't fit the view of the world he brought with him to the Oval Office. It doesn't fit with what seems to be the goal of his presidency—social transformation—the restructuring of American society." Cheney also said that Obama "seems to think if he has a low key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won't be at war," and that Obama thinks that "if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and read them their Miranda rights, we won't be at war." Senior Democrats noted that Cheney failed to condemn the Christmas Day attack in his statement, and that Obama had referred to the "war" on terror in several public speeches, including his inaugural. So who’s pretending now?