Can anybody actually sit through that 2-hour epic HBO is running? I always start spacing out after 20 minutes as I find it impossible to focus on Dick Cheney for longer than that. What an over-inflated, pretentious bore of a documentary, eh? The show is a coverup and apology parading as history, a complete distortion of truth, although I’m sure it unintentionally sheds some light in some dark corners despite the carefully selected cast of characters and facts. It plays like Cheney had final cut.
Yeah, the whole “weapons of mass destruction” was a complete lie, they expose that, but the documentary never goes into the structure of the Neo-Con take-over of America and the complex agenda that came with that takeover. The plans for an Iraq invasion as well as the plans for Iraq oil were carefully worked out before Saddam became the unexpected scapegoat for 9/11. According to Greg Palast, the real reason for the invasion was Saddam was dumping oil on the market in a way the oil cartel didn’t like, which kept prices down. The Neo-Cons drew up a plan to sell off every asset Iraq owned, but the oil cartel wanted to make sure the spigots were turned down so as to weaken OPEC’s hand in negotiations? This is the news today at least. You’d be surprised how much the intelligence agencies hover around oil production and distribution as they are considered the keys to the kingdom so long as oil continues to run the world. Only thing more profitable is war and drugs, which usually go together like a horse and carriage.
Here is what I took away from the HBO show from what I’ve seen so far:
We know now that Watergate was really a CIA plot to remove Nixon from power. What happened when Nixon was gone? Rumsfeld took over. Ford was a figurehead president, who didn’t even have his own staff. Rumsfeld brought Cheney into the White House. Ford didn’t know him from Adam. A year later, Cheney becomes the youngest Presidential chief of staff in history. Then Rumsfeld and Cheney made a huge power play, taking out a host of Rockefeller allies. And even though Rockefeller was Vice President at the time, it seems Rumsfeld and Cheney were wielding more power. You have to wonder what power group engineered these two people into such lofty positions.
I guess the best thing about the documentary is watching how a dozen junior lawyers at the Justice Department were able to squash illegal searches that had grown out-of-control, but what they don’t tell you is that the CIA and other agencies like them routinely do illegal searches every day. When you work with the bad boys, bad things happen and nobody is ever the wiser. That sort of activity is part of the culture of winning the fake war on terror. And too bad those lawyers didn’t shut down Gitmo, that national embarrassment that will follow W’s legacy for the rest of his life, pulling his karma like an anchor. That would have been a real achievement.