Cheney Feels Impact of Failure of War on Terror

By Matthew Rothschild

Just how seriously Bush has bungled his war on terror became painfully clear this week. On Tuesday a Taliban suicide bomber attacked Bagram Air Force Base in an apparent assassination attempt on Dick Cheney, who was visiting there.

When the Vice President of the United States is unable to visit purported allies in the so-called war on terror without risking his life, how can Bush and Cheney say we’re winning?Cheney was unhurt, but the blast killed “up to 23 people and wounding 20 more,” CNN reported.

Bagram is one of the most heavily defended sites in all of Afghanistan. If the Vice President is not safe there, no one is safe in the entire country.

It’s a country Bush and Cheney have neglected and mismanaged. After knocking off the Taliban, they failed to vanquish bin Laden in the caves of Tora Bora. They failed to get Mullah Omar. And they lowballed the number of troops needed to control the place.

As a result, the Taliban have reemerged, bolder than ever, as Cheney himself got to learn, up close and personal.

Next door, in Pakistan, things aren’t any better.

Cheney visited there a day before Bagram, and the mission was top secret. American reporters couldn’t even mention that Cheney was going to Pakistan until he’d left the country.

The reason: Because Musharraf can’t control the people in his own intelligence agency, the ISI, who were seen as a threat to Cheney’s life. Elements of the ISI have also been aiding the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.

When the Vice President of the United States is unable to visit purported allies in the so-called war on terror without risking his life, how can Bush and Cheney say we’re winning?

I pity the Secret Service.

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