STFU, Dick Cheney

[Content Note: Terrorism; violence.]

Former Vice-President and growling nightmare monster Dick Cheney has, for fully the one billionth time since leaving office, warned that another terrorist attack even bigger than 9/11 is coming:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday predicted the United States would not make it out of the next decade without another terrorist attack, likely much bigger than 9/11.

Cheney, who has made a similar warning a number of times before, said the threat might come from a nuclear device.

"I think there will be another attack. And next time, I think it's likely to be far deadlier than the last one," Cheney told radio host Hugh Hewitt. "You can just imagine what would happen if somebody could smuggle a nuclear device, put it in a shipping container, and drive it down the Beltway outside of Washington, D.C."

Seriously, Dick Cheney, SHUT THE FUCK UP. It's not that you're wrong about the possibility of a major terrorist event; it's that we all know that, and your compulsive need to talk about it and to urge us to "imagine what would happen" is gross and creepy and terrible.

There's not even any pretense to caring about people's lives, the human cost of a terrorist attack, when such an attack is routinely invoked with the demeanor of a bad cop with a wicked grin who just wants anyone to give him a reason.

And it's exploitative—because the whole point is to talk shit about President Obama and his foreign policy decisions (which is something that former vice-presidents have not previously done to sitting presidents, out of respect, which is another reason Cheney needs to STFU):

"One of the things I worried about 12 years ago, and that I worry about today, is that there will be another 9/11 attack and that the next time, it'll be with weapons far deadlier than airline tickets and box cutters," he said.

"And when we have a situation developing in Pakistan, for example, where there are nuclear weapons, where supposedly that technology has been sold to the North Koreans, at the same time, the president announces the complete withdrawal from Afghanistan right next door, that we're missing the boat."

Said with the usual unfounded conviction of a man whose foreign policy positions are always wrong. Neoconservatives are intractably resistant to the idea that militaristic meddling in other countries is what makes us the target for retributive terrorism. If Cheney really gives a shit about keeping the US safe, he'd advocate peace.

But peace doesn't pay dividends like the military-industrial complex does.