Dick Cheney: Obama owes the Bush administration an apology

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Despite what people might think, Dick Cheney does not reflexively oppose everything Barack Obama does. In fact, the former VP spoke to CNN’s Candy Crowley in support of the strike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, American citizens that joined al-Qaeda to support terrorist attacks against the US. Cheney told Crowley that Obama acted appropriately and made a correct wartime decision — and then said that perhaps Obama might want to apologize for not recognizing that as a candidate when attacking George Bush for doing the same thing:

Cheney took particular issue with the administration’s reluctance to describe the fight against al Qaeda as a “war” and Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo where he walked back from many Bush administration policies.

“The thing I’m waiting for is for the administration to go back and correct something they said two years ago when they criticized us for ‘overreacting’ to the events of 9/11,” said Cheney. “They, in effect, said that we had walked away from our ideals, or taken policies contrary to our ideals when we had enhanced interrogation techniques.”

“Now they clearly had moved in the direction of taking robust action when they feel it is justified. I say in this case I think it was, but I think they need to go back and reconsider what the president said when he was in Cairo,” he added.

“If you’ve got the president of the United States out there saying we overreacted to 9/11 on our watch, that’s not good,” said Cheney.

When asked by CNN host Candy Crowley if Cheney expected an apology from the president, the former vice president said, “Well, I would. I think that would be not for me, but I think for the Bush administration, and that he misspoke when he gave that speech in Cairo two years ago.”