From War Crimes to CIA Dreams
The Strange Bedfellows of Liz Cheney and Whoopi Goldberg
The 2003 Iraq War stands as a stark reminder of how the neocons and warhawks in both the Republican and Democrat Parties led the United States into conflict under false pretenses. The government lied to us—they knew the intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction was wrong, but they used it as an excuse to push their agenda. At the heart of this deception was the Cheney family, with Dick Cheney as the primary architect and his daughter Liz deeply involved in the State Department. Most Americans remain unaware of how instrumental Liz Cheney was in this effort, making the Democrats' recent embrace of her all the more baffling. Figures like Whoopi Goldberg, who once condemned the Cheneys and their war, now suggest Liz should lead the CIA or FBI, demonstrating a strange, selective memory driven by political expediency.
Two decades later, Liz Cheney has found unexpected admirers among liberals, who now view her as a hero for her stance against Trump. Figures like Whoopi Goldberg—who once vehemently criticized the Iraq War and its architects—now praise Cheney, even suggesting she could lead the CIA or FBI. This sudden shift reveals the Democratic establishment's selective memory, driven by expedience. Cheney's role in one of America's most controversial wars is conveniently ignored because she now symbolizes opposition to Trump and the current GOP.
Part 1: Liz Cheney’s Role in the Iraq War
In 2003, Dick Cheney installed his daughter, Liz Cheney in the State Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, precisely when the Iraq War was launched. Charged with promoting democracy across the Middle East, Cheney’s work dovetailed neatly with her father's narrative that Iraq’s liberation would be the first domino in a region-wide transformation. Her responsibilities included overseeing the implementation of the “Middle East Partnership Initiative” (MEPI), which purported to support civil society, democratic reforms, and women's rights in the region. However, in practice, MEPI often served as window dressing, a diplomatic veneer for her father's true ambitions: remaking Iraq through force.
Throughout the mid-2000s, as the war slogged on with rising American casualties and dwindling public support, Liz Cheney continued her efforts in the State Department, later heading the Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group in 2005. By aligning her work with her father’s interventionist ambitions, Cheney became an essential proponent for sustaining the U.S. presence in Iraq, justifying an increasingly unpopular war. Her vocal support for “democratic transformation” provided a rhetorical backbone to the administration's “freedom agenda,” which was, in essence, a cover for regime change.
Part 2: Key Democratic Criticisms of the Iraq War, Dick Cheney, and Liz Cheney
The Iraq War swiftly became a flashpoint of dissent, with prominent Democrats and anti-war activists condemning the Bush administration’s motives and methods. Figures like Senators Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer accused the administration of deceit, arguing that the war was based on a deliberate manipulation of intelligence. In the cultural sphere, celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg were outspoken critics, lambasting George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as warmongers who had dragged the nation into an unnecessary conflict with catastrophic human and financial costs.
Goldberg, a host on The View and an influential voice among liberal audiences, frequently decried the Iraq War and criticized Dick Cheney as emblematic of corporate cronyism and a hawkish disregard for human life. Her opposition wasn’t limited to policy but extended to the Cheney family’s role in pushing an imperialist agenda. Liz Cheney, seen as her father’s ideological protégé, became a target of scorn for her staunch defense of the war. Democrats saw her efforts in the State Department as part of a larger strategy to perpetuate a futile war, motivated less by the defense of American ideals than by the pursuit of power and profit.
Part 3: The Left’s Surprising Embrace of Liz Cheney in 2024
Fast-forward to the current political landscape, where Liz Cheney has found herself improbably welcomed by the left. Now, after her outspoken criticism of Trump and involvement in the January 6 Committee, Cheney is lauded as a defender of democracy, despite her past actions in the Middle East being anything but democratic. Her efforts in Iraq were part of an anti-democratic campaign to install a regime that would serve American interests and the military-industrial complex, not the Iraqi people. Figures like Whoopi Goldberg, who once vilified the Cheneys as symbols of neoconservative greed, now view Liz as a bulwark against authoritarianism, with Goldberg even suggesting that Cheney could be a suitable candidate for the head of the CIA or FBI. This endorsement is curious, given Goldberg’s well-documented opposition to the very kind of hawkish, surveillance-heavy policies that Cheney has long championed.
The embrace of Liz Cheney by liberal elites is a peculiar case of ideological amnesia, a willingness to overlook her role in one of America’s greatest foreign policy blunders. For those like Whoopi Goldberg, who once stood firmly against the Cheney legacy, this newfound admiration seems to rest more on expedient political alliances than on any consistent moral stance. Cheney’s opposition to Trump has, in the eyes of her liberal admirers, erased years of complicity in a war that drained American resources, cost countless lives, and destabilized an entire region.
Conclusion: The Irony of Selective Memory
In the end, the left’s embrace of Liz Cheney underscores a remarkable selectivity of memory and principle. Once scorned for her role in Iraq, she is now celebrated for her opposition to Trump, even by those who once decried the very warmongering and imperialism she promoted. This strange bedfellow phenomenon reveals the malleability of political loyalties, where yesterday’s adversaries become today’s allies, provided they serve the current narrative. For Democrats like Whoopi Goldberg, who once stood as passionate critics of the Iraq War, the endorsement of Cheney reflects an uncomfortable truth: their principles, once rock-solid in opposition to war, have become negotiable when a new political battle presents itself.