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Like Father, Like Daughter: Elizabeth Cheney Threatens ‘Military Action’ Against Iran

The Washington Post notes today that Liz Cheney, daughter of Vice President Cheney and a former State Department official, is “unhappy with key elements of U.S. Mideast policy.” “[W]e have been less effective and less successful…when we have been unfortunately not so bold,” she said of the Bush administration in remarks to AIPAC last week.

Liz Cheney encouraged the U.S. to draw more “red lines” in the Middle East, adopting an even harder-line than the Bush administration on key policies. When it came to Iran, however, Liz Cheney, seemed to be in full agreement with at least one administration official: her father. In her remarks, Cheney said the “time for diplomacy” with Iran is “rapidly coming to an end”:

Over the years, she said, there has been “no shortage of efforts to talk to them” — but to no avail: “We don’t have the luxury to have the debate we have been having about should we talk, should we not talk. The time for diplomacy here is rapidly coming to an end.

Left unmentioned in the Post’s story is that Liz Cheney also said the U.S. also needs to threaten Iran with “military action.” The Asia Times reports:

[Liz Cheney] deplored…the Bush administration’s failure to enforce “red lines” against Iranian advances in the region. Washington, she declared, must clearly state that if Iranians “don’t give up diplomatically [to United Nations demands that it freeze its nuclear program], they will face military action”.

At AIPAC, Liz Cheney also “made clear her view that the recent efforts by Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal are taking resources away from dealing with Iran,” the Post notes.

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Indeed, as Dan Froomkin noted in April, Vice President Cheney has been on the “warpath” with Iran recently, drumming up the threat coming from the country. In fact, Gareth Porter reported last week that “Pentagon officials firmly opposed a proposal by Vice President Dick Cheney last summer for airstrikes against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.”