JMO - Only Mr Cheney

Only Dick Cheney and misuse and even abuse logic. Reading about his and Vice President Biden's recent interviews on the Sunday morning news shows. Mr. Cheney can't seem to see the contradiction with his words. On one hand he calls it "the war on terrorism" and on the other hand calls those captured in the war not prisoners of war but "enemy combatants."

Even with all the twisted legalese of Mr. You only Mr. Cheney can you twist a war into not a war and then back. Semantic convenience. That's all it is. Nothing real or true. A prisoner of war is a prisoner of war, and subject under the Geneva Convention. But Mr. Cheney, along with convincing former President Bush, that the enemy aren't prisoners.

So what is the difference between and enemy combatant and prisoner of war? Well, for one the usually latter have to be captured in the war zone and really in the theater of war operations, but they can be captured outside the war zone if they're directly involved with activities that relate to the war.

Except the war on terrorism isn't a war against a country, and authorized by Congress. They only authorized military operations against Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the then government of Afghanistan, for 9/11. The President and his administrations twisted it into the war in Iraq, and even illegally spending money on the preparation for the war there with funds of Afghanistan.

But here's where thing break down again. Mr. Cheney says it's a war but not a war because we didn't really declare war, that's Congress' responsibility. And so the enemey, not being members of the military of a government at war, aren't prisoners of war. Except then the North Koreans, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, and those captured in later wars, except the First Gulf War, declared by the UN, are also not prisoners of war.

They're not because war was never declared against North Korea or North Vietnam. But we followed the rules under the Geneva Convention and treated them as prisoners of war. So why is Irag in the Second Gulf War and the war in Afghanistan any different?

It's not. Not in any way. And as we have come to know, most of those at Gitmo weren't captured in the war zone or in war operations, and many weren't even captured in Afghanistan or Iraq. The war on terrorism, to the President's administration then, was global, and anywhere is legal. Yet, in many cases we simply kidnapped people and transported them to our prisons.

And his logic breaks down when it's a war on an idea than a country. This was obviously intentional to make it an endless war to create fear and keep the flow of money going. You can always make the case terrorism lives everywhere and instill fear that your neighbor is the enemy. This is no different than the communists did in the then Soviet Union.

Clearly Cheney learned the lessons from the cold war on how to treat people in your own country. Treat them as the enemy and create fear that any of them can attack you. That way you can instlll endless vigilance and fighting against the ghost of enemies not seen or known. The war on terrorism is really one against Americans by those in power, like Mr. Cheney.

It's not about any real war or any real enemy. That's the beauty of what he's trying to sell. And he truly believes his words. He is his own delusion of reality, using his own words to prove his case. If I said it, it must be true. That's his logic. Sadly, it's not real or true, only his illusion.

I'm not saying terrorists don't want to hurt American and attack America. That's real and true. It's the selling of it that I argue has been false and lies, by Mr. Cheney and the rest of the Bush administration. It was a war about oil in Iraq, about defeating Saddham Hussein and about global geopolitics. It wasn't about 9/11 or terrorists. That's only the lies they used to jusfity it.

And in all this logic Cheney, etal still demanded the enemy and the world treat our soldiers as prisoners of war, and follow the Geneva Convention. Apparently they didn't see the obvious contradiction, and even in hindshight, still don't. Maybe Mr Cheney needs to experience what life for an enemy combatant is like under his rules.

Maybe under interrogation he'll see the light and convert to reality? Somehow I don't think he will. He lived under the rock of his own delusion too long.