Cheney: 'It Would Have Been Unethical or Immoral' Not to Torture

clipped from thinkprogress.org In an interview earlier this week, Vice President Cheney admitted to personally approving the torture of high-profile detainees. In a new interview with the Washington Times, Cheney stridently defended the Bush administration’s torture policies, saying, “I feel very good about what we did. I think it was the right thing to do.” He added emphatically that he would “do exactly the same thing again.” “In my mind, the foremost obligation we had from a moral or an ethical standpoint was to the oath of office we took when we were sworn in, on January 20 of 2001, to protect and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic. And that’s what we’ve done,” he said. […] “I think it would have been unethical or immoral for us not to do everything we could in order to protect the nation against further attacks like what happened on 9/11,” Mr. Cheney said.

It's always easy -- not to mention safe -- to assume that Dick Cheney's lying. But just this once, we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and just assume he's stupid. His oath of office does not call on him to "to protect and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic." What Dick and George actually swore to do is this:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

I think we can all agree that Dick and George have done a really shitty job of that. Maybe they weren't paying attention when they pledged. Dick's practically been daring Obama to prosecute him lately. Here's hoping he does.