Hey, Vivek: Shut up about Dick Cheney until you’ve actually accomplished something | Opinion

Vivek Ramawswamy needs to keep Dick Cheney’s name out of his mouth.

The smarmy empty vessel who for some reason still appears in Republican presidential debates was trying Wednesday night to create a broad indictment of rivals Nikki Haley and Chris Christie over the Ukraine war. In doing so, he endorsed Vladimir Putin running amok over Europe – and trashed a notable Republican with, you know, actual accomplishments.

Trying to smear Christie and Haley as “toxic neo-cons,” he spouted: “You can put lipstick on a Dick Cheney, it is still a fascist neocon.”

Easy target. Cheney is a complex figure, and yes, his aggressive foreign policy drove the war in Iraq and other foreign policy mistakes. And Donald Trump sycophants like Ramaswamy love to tar Cheney because he’s honest and upfront about his concerns about the former president.

But here’s what else Dick Cheney is: a dedicated patriot who served his country in several vital roles at crucial junctures.

Cheney was an important defense policymaker in the House. He was defense secretary when the United States routed Iraq out of Kuwait. And he was vice president at one of the country’s most perilous moments, the 9/11 attacks.

Vice President Dick Cheney in January 2008. (John D. Simmons/Charlotte Observer/MCT) JOHN D. SIMMONS/MCT

Some of us, unlike Ramaswamy, are old enough to remember the true peril of that day. No one knew the extent of the Islamist terrorist attacks that descended out of nowhere on a Tuesday morning. As the military sought to protect a traveling president, Cheney had to make the gut-wrenching call of whether U.S. pilots should shoot down jetliners full of innocent Americans to prevent more death and destruction.

Did the terrorists have biological weapons, or worse, a nuclear device or dirty bomb? Might they get to Bush or incapacitate Congress? These are the possibilities that Cheney and others had to face down. Cheney, a survivor of several heart attacks, stood down al-Qaeda, when Ramswamy was in high school.

It’s easy in hindsight for fools like Ramaswamy to question the Iraq war. Few of us, knowing what we know now, would have supported the 2003 invasion. But the entire world, including advanced intelligence services, thought Saddam Hussein posed a threat to the region, at a minimum, with advanced weapons of mass destruction. They were all wrong, including Cheney, and his legacy should reflect that.

But calling Cheney a fascist? Brainless anti-war protesters from 2005 want their ridiculous talking points back.

We must judge public servants based on their times. Cheney helped protect this country at a time of maximum peril.

Ramaswamy, by contrast, has held no public office. He’s had no crises to address. It appears the biggest challenges he’s ever faced are tough questions on podcasts and how to get another half-inch of height in his hair.

There are plenty of mistakes to hold Cheney accountable for in hindsight. You know who has no credibility to do it? Vivek Ramaswamy.

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