Cheney Liz - Exceptional : why the world needs a powerful America

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ALSO BY DICK CHENEY

Heart

In My Time

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Copyright 2015 by Richard B. Cheney and Elizabeth L. Cheney

Excerpts from There Are No Islands, Any More in Chapter 1, Edna St. Vincent Millay from the New York Times (June 14, 1940). Copyright 1940, 1968 by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Norma Millay Ellis. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of Holly Peppe, Literary Executor, The Millay Society.

A portion of Chapter Three appeared in different form in The Weekly Standard , July 21, 2014, and are 2014 The Weekly Standard.

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First Threshold Editions hardcover edition September 2015

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Author photograph by David Kennerly

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-5011-1541-7 (ebook)

ISBN 978-1-5011-1544-8 (ebook)

To the men and women of the United States Armed Forces, defenders of liberty, sustainers of freedom

It is up to us in our time to choose, and choose wisely, between the hard but necessary task of preserving peace and freedom, and the temptation to ignore our duty and blindly hope for the best while the enemies of freedom grow stronger day by day.

PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN, MARCH 23, 1983

And now let us indulge an honest exultation in the conviction of the benefit which the example of our country has produced and is likely to produce on human freedom and human happiness. And let us endeavor to comprehend in all its magnitude and to feel in all its importance the part assigned to us in the great drama of human affairs.

DANIEL WEBSTER, DEDICATION OF BUNKER HILL MONUMENT, 1825

L ess than fifty years after our founding, the benefit of Americas example for the world was evident. Yet Daniel Webster could not have begun to imagine the true magnitude of the role we would play in the great drama of human affairs. We have guaranteed freedom, security, and peace for a larger share of humanity than has any other nation in all of history. There is no other like us. There never has been. We are, as a matter of empirical fact and undeniable history, the greatest force for good the world has ever known.

Born of the revolutionary ideal that we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, we were, first, an example of freedoms possibilities. During World War II, we became freedoms defender; at the end of the Cold War, the worlds sole superpower. We did not seek the position. It is ours because of our ideals and our power, and the power of our ideals. In the words of British historian Andrew Roberts, In the debate over whether America was born great, achieved greatness, or had greatness thrust upon her, the only possible conclusion must be: all three.

We are, as constitutional scholar Walter Berns put it, the one essential country. It isnt just our involvement in world events that has been essential for the triumph of freedom. It is our leadership. No other nation, international body, or community of nations can do what we do. For the better part of a century, security and freedom for millions of people around the globe have depended on Americas military, economic, political, and diplomatic might. For the most part, until the administration of Barack Obama, we delivered.

Since Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed us the Arsenal of Democracy in 1940, Republican and Democratic presidents alike have understood the indispensable nature of American power. Presidents from Truman to Nixon, from Kennedy to Reagan have known that Americas strength must be safeguarded, her supremacy maintained. In the 1940s, American power and leadership were essential to victory in World War II and the liberation of millions from the grip of fascism. In the Cold War, American strength and supremacy were key in liberating Eastern Europe, defeating Soviet totalitarianism, and ensuring the survival of freedom. In this century, our leadership and our might will once again be required for the defeat of militant Islam and the preservation of our security and liberty in the face of threats from other dedicated adversaries. Yet despite the explosive spread of terrorist ideology and organizations, the establishment of an ISIS caliphate in the heart of the Middle East, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and increasing threats from Iran, China, North Korea, and Russia, President Obama has departed from the bipartisan tradition going back seventy-five years of maintaining Americas global supremacy and leadership.

He has abandoned Iraq, leaving a vacuum being filled by our enemies. He says he will do the same in Afghanistan. He has made dangerous cuts to Americas conventional forces and reduced our nuclear arsenal in the misguided belief this will convince rogue nations to do the same. He has recalibrated Americas foreign policy to avoid causing offense in Tehran. He has been so desperate to conclude a nuclear agreement Irans leaders have no intention of honoring, that he has repeatedly misled the American people and granted dangerous concession after dangerous concession. He is gambling Americas security on the veracity of the mullahs in Tehran. He is unconcerned with maintaining American supremacy because it is inconsistent with his worldview. No world order, he tells us, that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed.

President Obama has diminished American power and retreated from the field of battle, fueling rising threats against our nation. He has pursued a foreign policy built on appeasing our adversaries, abandoning our allies, and apologizing for America. A civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does, wrote Jean-Franois Revel, will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself. For President Obama, it goes beyond lacking the energy and conviction to defend us. He has dedicated his presidency to restraining us, limiting our power, and diminishing us.