February 24, 2007
The Veep digs in his heels
It’s been quite a week for Our Fine President’s Iraq War. His big surge is finally getting underway, and as I understand it, it’s goal is to use an overwhelming display of troops to temporarily bring calm to Baghdad, thus giving the various insurgent factions a bit of down time for them to rest up, re-arm and wait until the troops head back to their “Mission Accomplished” banner.
But that’s not even the big story of what’s going on. Just as things got surging, all sorts of new problems started to arise. Despite the surge, things keep exploding on the streets of Iraq and the new chemical bomb attacks are bringing Our Fine President’s WMD dreams to a sickly real place. Add to that the continued dissolution of that phony “Coalition of the Willing” thing as Britain, Denmark and other allies are pulling out of the country. Oh yeah, and the Democrats in control of Congress are beginning to discuss the strategies they might employ to do what a majority of the American public wants; bring and end to the war.
So what is the big response to all this? Well naturally it’s time to go back on the offensive. It’s time to lash out at the critics, and who better to take the point on this than a man who has no problems cursing out a Congressman in public, or shooting caged birds and free-range lawyers. That’s right, Vice President Dick Cheney was set loose again this week and he’s always a great source for nasty and pompous statements in blind support of his senseless plans which have, as predicted, gone awry.
While touring through Japan, Guam and Australia Cheney had plenty to say about everything that’s been going on. Before the withdrawals were announced, Cheney had this bit of wisdom about why we’re in the war on terror for the Japanese press.
“We know that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength, they are invited by the perception of weakness. We know that if we leave Iraq before the mission is completed, the enemy is going to come after us. And I want you to know that the American people will not support a policy of retreat. We want to complete the mission, we want to get it done right, and we want to return with honor.”
Now those are some strong words, but they’re also extremely troubling, if a man in the position of power Dick Cheney is in really believes them. See, our military presence there is a magnet for attacks on Americans. Our show of strength invites tests of that strength. The enemy attacking Americans in Iraq isn’t fighting against our way of life as much as they are our occupation of their homeland.
Terrorists are not attacking America because they think we are weak. They are attacking us because it makes them feel big to take on the big power and it helps them gain notoriety to bring more people to their misguided view that anyone who doesn’t want to accept their view of what society should be deserves to die.
The American people just recently showed their support for an end to the war with the election of the Democratic majority in Congress. The latest polls show a majority of Americans want to end the war right now. His last sentence is the most puzzling, as I’m confused as to just what “the mission” is at this point and how we’re supposed to return with honor after using tactics of torture in a war waged on the back of what were at best misleading assessments and at worst outright lies.
Democrats greeted the news of that Britain would begin withdrawing troops as a sign our staunchest ally was ready to focus on non-military strategies to restore order to Iraq. But Cheney explained it as a positive sign that order had been restored to some areas of the country and the job there was done. That statement flies in the face of ongoing violence in the region of Iraq patrolled by the Brits. I also wonder why the Brits need to leave. Can’t we just add them to our surge so we can keep a few extra American troops at home a couple extra months between tours?
But Cheney had even more fun things to say. Here’s how he responded to the House of Representation’s examination of a strategy to slow down troop deployment:
“I think in fact if we were to do what Speaker Pelosi and Congressman Murtha are suggesting, all we’ll do is validate the al Qaida strategy, the al Qaida strategy is to break the will of the American people. I think that is exactly the wrong course to go on. I think that is the course of action that Speaker Pelosi and Jack Murtha support. I think it would be a mistake for the country.”
He seems to think a lot about what they have to say, but once again I’m frightened by his view of the reality in front of him. The al Qaida strategy is to gain in power. Our misguided war offered no military opposition to al Qaida, but has served as a four year recruitment advertisement for their efforts. Their goal is to create some sort of worldwide Islamic empire, breaking the will of the American people is what Cheney and his friends are up to with their relentless attacks on the patriotic credentials of their critics.
Besides, all Cheney’s statements begin with “I think…” His thoughts haven’t panned out so well in the past. I believe he also thought there were WMDs, that we’d be greeted as liberators, and the insurgency was in its last throes. Seems like his thoughts aren’t the most reliable source.
When the Democrats called bullshit on Cheney’s statements and said he should take back his criticism of their patriotism, he fired right back with this batch of bluster:
“If you’re going to advocate a course of action that basically is withdrawal of our forces from Iraq, then you don’t get to just do the fun part of that, that says, ‘We’ll, we’re going to get out,’ and appeal to your constituents on that basis, You also have to be accountable for the results. What are the consequences of that? What happens if we withdraw from Iraq? And the point I made and I’ll make it again is that al Qaida functions on the basis that they think they can break our will. That’s their fundamental underlying strategy, that if they can kill enough Americans or cause enough havoc, create enough chaos in Iraq, then we’ll quit and go home. And my statement was that if we adopt the Pelosi policy, that then we will validate the strategy of al Qaida. I said it and I meant it.”
This time Cheney again denies the reality of a majority in America being in favor of the withdrawal. I agree with him about accountability for results. I’d like to see some more accountability from his side of things for the results they’ve achieved in Iraq. Of course his point about al Qaida is again over simplified and makes no sense. They attacked us in the American skies before we were fighting them directly at their bases in Afghanistan. We weren’t fighting them in Iraq until we toppled Saddam Hussein and created a vacuum of power and easy access to American targets. Iraq had nothing to do with al Qaida and to equate the two now just continues this administrations lack of focus on the real threats from al Qaida’s leadership which is holed up somewhere in western Pakistan.
Of course, being the gentleman that I am, I’ll give Cheney the last word on this. In response to any challenge he offers the same four words:
“I’m not backing down.”