An open e-mail to Dick Cheney

To: dick.cheney@whitehouse.gov (still) Subject: Shame and failure

Your new office is in your basement (via thewanderringgod, Flickr)

Dick –
There is a tradition in Germany that you start your mails with the word ”dear“, but in your case, I will abstain from it, as it would be hypocrisy.

In a few days, George W. Bush will leave the White House, and you will go with him. I know you are very religious; I am an agnostic, but the thought of you shutting the door behind you makes me want to sing “hosianna”. And I am not alone, oh believe me, I am not.

If people are either with you or against you, you must feel pretty alone now. Oh, I forgot, some people will pat you on your back: Big oil and big military contractors are proud of you, as you choose to serve them, not the American people. This was your choice, and you will have to live with the consequence of thousands of American soldiers and even more Iraqi people have suffered misery and death as a result of your flawed ideology.

The fathers of your country, who founded this land on liberty, would be ashamed: For you and the rest of the administration, the constitution was nothing but a piece of paper with advice; the principele of checks and balances has been undermined by your endless hunger for executive power – just ask your former majority in the House or anyone who wants to take a closer look into the Administration’s records. You have transformed America into a country that has chosen security over freedom, fear over optimism. In the Middle East, you have chosen the role of an agitator over that of a mediator; as far as Europe is concerned, you have abandoned partnership for egoism. In the financial sector, your choice was blindness over control; your climate policy traded sustainability for short-sightedness. Worst of all, Guantanamo Bay was one of your babies. The reputation of being an ignorant, expansive empire that uses torture to prevail has become the poisoned legacy your country, maybe all democracies in the West will have to bear.

You were not solemnly responsible for all this; still, you were the one who filled the administration with your protégés and your ideology, who muted every bipartisan voice that wanted to be heard by the President. The question is not, what the world would have become without Bush; it is what the world would look now without Bush / Cheney. The answer to me is clear: A better place.

Dick Cheney, you have not served your country well. In fact, your eight years in office are a shameful example for everyone who will follow you in office for the next hundred years. But in your immense ignorance, you will not realize that.

I can only sing “hosianna” once more, as I do not have to write about you and your boss / marionette any more on this blog. The world can breathe a sigh of relief for now. But maybe your goal was not to make America and the world better, anyway. Then, I would have to congratulate you as you have been successful:  If your mission was to make America a less free, less respected and less wealthy place, you can truly say: Mission accomplished.