The Mystery of Dick Cheney
I've always liked Dick Cheney. He's a man's man, calm and resolute under pressure, the kind of guy who always seemed to be the "cooler head" in the phrase "cooler heads prevail".
Thus I'm kind of surprised that he was so unrestrained in his desire to prosecute this war. I think the war was a just one, but not prudent, although that remains to be seen. But what surprises me is how in Woodward's book Cheney is such an unalloyed hawk. Now Wolfowitz and the other neo-cons I can understand, but the VP always struck me as a the wisest of them all - of a higher quality of presidential timber than anyone in Bush's administration with the possible exception of Condi Rice (I might be biased).
So it's interesting to me that Dick Cheney seemed to rush into this thing ill-prepared, at least the post-war part of it. The basic misreading, I gather from news reports, is that he thought we would be hailed as liberators and be given much help by the Iraqis. This is a sort of Wilsonian optimism I'm unfamiliar with, a sort of denial of original sin. I suppose wisdom is a quality possessed only to the extent you are steeped in biblical and Magisterium teaching. The obligatory disclaimer applies: since I'm only partially steeped, take my posts with a grain of salt.
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