The Irony of Dick Cheney Not Understanding Irony

September 7, 2008

Cheney Issues Warning to Russia

By STEVEN LEE MYERS

CERNOBBIO, Italy — Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday denounced Russia’s war against Georgia as evidence of a pattern of “troublesome and unhelpful actions” that threatened peace from Central Asia to the Middle East to Europe.

Mr. Cheney, speaking at an international conference here beside Lake Como, said that Russia now faced a choice between cooperation and isolation, and he urged European nations to join the United States in unambiguously supporting Georgia, Ukraine and other new democracies in Russia’s shadow.

“Does Russia really want to separate itself from the community of values that has fueled so much of its own economic progress?” Mr. Cheney asked an annual gathering of political leaders and business executives organized by the European House-Ambrosetti, a private consultancy. “Does the Russian government really wish to operate in the modern world as an outsider, alienating free countries and trying to …