Friday, August 13, 2004

Cheney distorts again

This is what Kerry said:

“I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history. I lay out a strategy to strengthen our military, to build and lead strong alliances and reform our intelligence system. I set out a path to win the peace in Iraq

--------------------------------------
This is Cheney:

“,,.John Kerry’s call for a ‘more sensitive’ war on terror…won’t impress the Sep 11 terrorists or the Islamic militant who have beheaded U.S. citizens. America has been in too many war for any of our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being sensitive.”

This is a reply from one of Kerry’s spokesmen:

“Dick Cheney’s desperate misleading attacks now have him criticizing George Bush’s own words, who called for America to be ‘sensitive about expressing our power and influence.’ Here is Bush again: ‘We help fulfill that promise not by lecturing the world but by leading it. Precisely because America is powerful we must be sensitive about expressing our power and influence.’ Dick Cheney doesn’t understand that arrogance isn’t a virtue, especially when our country is in danger. Alienating allies makes it harder to hunt terrorists and bring them to justice.”.

Leave aside for the moment which of our other wars may or may not have been against our wishes. Certainly this “war” in Iraq was wished for, at least by Bush and his neocon cronies who planned for it and lied repeatedly to bring it about. It is more difficult to set aside the unbelievable arrogance of Cheney, the number two draft dodger in the United States, presuming to tell John Kerry how to conduct a war. But of course he has to criticize Kerry because Bush/Cheney have absolutely no positive record to claim.

Certainly no one could argue that this particular unnecessary, unconstitutional, and universally condemned “war” has been conducted with any sensitivity. The arrogance and insensitivity has alienated our longest and most reliable allies to the point where the U.S. is regarded as the single most dangerous threat to the world. Our administration is regarded as a laughingstock by the rest of the world that cannot believe it could possibly be re-elected.

The lack of sensitivity can also be seen in the indiscriminate killing of Iraqi civilians, the midnight searches of Iraqi households, the kicking in of doors, the searching (groping) of Iraqi women, the detainment of perfectly innocent people, including children, who disappear for months on end. And it can certainly be seen in the treatment of Iraqi prisoners, tortured and humiliated beyond belief.

And isn’t it curious that sexual humiliation in particular was regarded as the one means that would bring about the best results, specifically in Iraqi prisoners, and this was the very means employed by a group of enlisted “bad apples” from Virginia and elsewhere, when they were “just having fun?”

No, Cheney the Slimy, I don’t think we have to worry about having been overly sensitive in our approach to this absolutely dismal and disgraceful chapter in American history, brought about by you and your greedy warmongering buddies. The blood on your hands will never wash off.


No comments: