Former Vice President Dick Cheney was honored tonight at the Hudson Institute’s 2012 Herman Khan Award Dinner at the Pierre Hotel in New York City. Cheney was introduced by Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who spoke in detail about Cheney’s life and accomplishments, joking about how Cheney twice flunked out of Yale, and joking about Cheney’s hunting incident. In his remarks Cheney was harshly critical of President Obama and the administration’s policy in the Mideast. He said he’s very, very concerned about what he sees developing day by day. He detailed the history of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, and what has been done to fight terror and said the Middle East is a very, very dangerous part of the world.
He said that when he hears our president announce that we got Bin Laden and we can “pivot” to Asia he is on the one hand “appalled” and on the other hand fears for future developments. Cheney said that that entire part of the world appears to be moving in a direction fundamentally hostile to U.S. interests, and that the U.S. is increasingly unable to influence events in that part of the world, seemingly because we’re “headed for the exit.” He was critical of reductions in Afghanistan, and mentioned President Obama’s trip to Cairo where he “apologized” for the U.S. reaction after 9/11. Cheney referenced the serious economic problems in the U.S but said he is concerned about the Middle East.
He said our allies no longer trust us and our enemies no longer fear us. He was highly critical of President Obama on Syria and basically said he has grave doubts the president will take any actions besides hope. He continued to say the national security threat is as serious as the economic one, and said that enormous damage is being done to the U.S. military with cuts. Toward the end of his remarks he said we can be absolutely certain that there are people out there planning to attack us, only with deadlier weapons than 19 hijackers and boxcutters.
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