More deferments

People never change. As a youth, Dick Cheney had “other priorities” that kept him out of the military, now he is squirming like a worm on a hook to stay out of jail. Fighting mightily to get the US Senate to allow an exemption for the CIA to torture people, he hopes that this will will help him when justice is served. Probably thinking of using a line like “Well, we had intended torture to be allowed only for the CIA – we can't be responsible for a few rogue soldiers who violate their orders” he can point to the law and hide behind it.

Unfortunately for him, he is already directly implicated in the authorization and instigation of torture. According to Col. Larry Wilkerson, a former top State Department official in the Bush Administration, "There's no question in my mind where the philosophical guidance and the flexibility in order to do so originated -- in the vice president of the United States' office....His implementer in this case was [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld and the Defense Department....the vice president had to cover this in order for it to happen and in order for Secretary Rumsfeld to feel as though he had freedom of action."
posted on The Human Stain