"There's every reason to believe there will be further attacks attempted against the United States. For us to spend so much time patting ourselves on the back because we got bin Laden that we miss the next attack would be a terrible tragedy"
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Cheney’s warning lands like a cold splash on a victory lap. It’s calibrated to puncture triumphalism after bin Laden’s killing, but it’s also doing something more strategic: keeping the country psychologically mobilized for an open-ended conflict. The phrasing matters. “Every reason to believe” borrows the cadence of intelligence briefings - authoritative, unsentimental, difficult to argue with without sounding naive. He frames complacency as not just foolish but morally catastrophic: “a terrible tragedy.” That’s not policy language; that’s a charge of negligence.
The subtext is a defense of the post-9/11 security posture Cheney championed. By warning against “patting ourselves on the back,” he positions celebration as a national vulnerability, a kind of emotional indulgence that invites punishment. It’s a familiar counterterrorism logic: the threat is permanent, the battlefield is everywhere, and the cost of relaxing is measured in bodies. In that worldview, skepticism about expansive surveillance, detention, or executive latitude can be recast as the first step toward catastrophe, not as a legitimate democratic check.
Context sharpens the intent. Spoken in the afterglow of a symbolic win, the line works to convert a finite event into evidence for an infinite mission. Bin Laden becomes less a conclusion than a proof of concept: if one leader falls, the network persists; if the network persists, extraordinary measures remain justified. It’s grief politics with a hard edge - not consoling, not unifying, but disciplining.
The subtext is a defense of the post-9/11 security posture Cheney championed. By warning against “patting ourselves on the back,” he positions celebration as a national vulnerability, a kind of emotional indulgence that invites punishment. It’s a familiar counterterrorism logic: the threat is permanent, the battlefield is everywhere, and the cost of relaxing is measured in bodies. In that worldview, skepticism about expansive surveillance, detention, or executive latitude can be recast as the first step toward catastrophe, not as a legitimate democratic check.
Context sharpens the intent. Spoken in the afterglow of a symbolic win, the line works to convert a finite event into evidence for an infinite mission. Bin Laden becomes less a conclusion than a proof of concept: if one leader falls, the network persists; if the network persists, extraordinary measures remain justified. It’s grief politics with a hard edge - not consoling, not unifying, but disciplining.
Quote Details
| Topic | War |
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