Dick Cheney: A series of pulleys, levers and springs.

click to enlarge God help us: The White House says Vice-President Dick Cheney will visit the Middle East next week to meet with Arab leaders and speak with US troops in the Persian Gulf. Scheduled stops include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. President Bush has asked the Vice President to travel to the region for discussions with the leaders of these nations on key issues of mutual interest. Sending Cheney on a diplomatic mission is like sending FEMA to New Orleans, it won't go well. When I first read this, my first thoughts were of Ariel Sharon's day trip to the Temple Mount and how it triggered the Al Aqsa Intifada. Seems like I am not the only one. From HuffPo: Similar to Ariel Sharon's disastrous and oft-discussed visit to Jerusalem's Temple Mount (Sep 28, 2000) -- a symbolic slap in the face that led to an escalation in Middle East tension -- Dick Cheney's upcoming "diplomatic" visit to the Middle East will be nothing more than a provocation resulting in yet another explosion of violence. More Americans and more Iraqis will die as a result of his trip. If the Bush administration was serious about saving lives, building U.S. credibility in the world, involving regional allies, and ending the Iraq occupation -- then they would put Dick Cheney back in his hidden location, lock the door from the outside and throw away the key. Cheney should not be allowed anywhere near Middle East diplomacy. Any diplomatic effort that involves Dick Cheney will result in one thing and one thing only: more violence, more failure, more death. I can't see how this will help in the short or long term, unless you are Al Qaeda. Before 9-11, their military experience was against one another in the mountains of Afghanistan. Now they have years worth of experience against the 82nd Airborne. The more we stay, the more of a problem they become. From Lubbock Online: Al Qaida owes George Bush a debt of gratitude. Mr. Bush provides the terrorist thugs with a fully equipped training camp, complete with realistic situations, live ammunition, a steady supply of authentic Great Satan targets (our daughters, sons, fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers in uniform), expendable civilians, and true-to-life markets, police stations and roadways where terrorist recruits can practice. Continued operation of Training Camp Iraq gives Al Qaida valuable, open-ended opportunities to learn from mistakes and sharpen skills at blowing things and people up, all at American expense in money and blood. The wounded U.S. warriors who come home struggling with amputations, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and shattered lives are abandoned to the neglect of the military / VA bureaucracy. Meanwhile, the Army rewrites the stories of their sufferings to respond to the presumed expectations of the public for just the right kind of heroes. I am unsure what machinations Cheney is plotting - drilling rights, Blackwater access deals or opening new markets for slave-labor corporations, I will guarantee you it will not make America's standing in the world any better, it will not improve the credibility of the United States in the world, nor will it help Americans in any way, shape or form.