Cheney's White Flag

The Nation: He Couldn't Win A Ground War Against Murtha

(The Nation)  Here we go again. Prior to the invasion, Bush, Cheney and other administration officials did make many statements that were not backed up by the available intelligence. Were these merely careless mistakes? Why not call for a quick conclusion to the Phase II investigation of the Senate intelligence committee and see what the evidence indicates? Rather, Cheney declared,

The flaws in the intelligence are plain enough in hindsight, but any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped, or fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false.

How does he explain that administration officials cited evidence that was in dispute — such as Iraq's infamous acquisition of aluminum tubes that Bush officials said could only be used for a nuclear weapons program — and claimed it was rock solid? Is it not a distortion to repeatedly cite an intelligence report that has been discredited by the CIA and the FBI?

And Cheney, despite his earlier statement, could not help but play the undercuts-the-troops card:

American soldiers and Marines serving in Iraq go out every day into some of the most dangerous and unpredictable conditions. Meanwhile, back in the United States, a few politicians are suggesting these brave Americans were sent into battle for a deliberate falsehood. This is revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety. It has no place anywhere in American politics, much less in the United States Senate. One might also argue that untruthful charges against the Commander-in-Chief have an insidious effect on the war effort itself. I'm unwilling to say that, only because I know the character of the United States Armed Forces — men and women who are fighting the war on terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other fronts. They haven't wavered in the slightes.

Cheney was indeed suggesting that questioning whether he and Bush deliberately oversold the intelligence could be bad for the troops. But since American GIs are so swell, such statements do not unduly affect them. The White House has made an obvious calculation: let's not attack Jack Murtha, let's go after Harry Reid.

Then he pulled out the usual rhetoric. The United States could not afford to withdraw and signal weakness to the "terrorists." He noted that the "terrorists" want to "gain control" of Iraq "so they have a base from which to launch attacks and to wage war against governments that do not meet their demands." And he remarked,

Those who advocate a sudden withdrawal from Iraq should answer a few simple questions: Would the United States and other free nations be better off, or worse off, with Zarqawi, bin Laden, and Zawahiri in control of Iraq? Would we be safer, or less safe, with Iraq ruled by men intent on the destruction of our country?

This is the same simplistic formulation the Bush crowd has been using since the invasion. In this characterization of the war, there is only us and them, the "them" being Zarqawi and the "terrorists" that have flocked to Iraq after the invasion. But Iraq is full of Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites, and the insurgency consists of much more than Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq. Does any reasonable Middle East analyst believe that Zarqawi could take over Iraq, against the wishes of the Shiites and their militias? Zarqawi poses a serious problem, but the more profound dilemma in Iraq involves the rising sectarian conflict and violence within a state that perhaps should not be a state. Bush and Cheney do not fully address this in public.

Cheney, instead, held up a phony argument to assault:

It is a dangerous illusion to suppose that another retreat by the civilized world would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone.

Who says that? Who believes that if the United States disengages in Iraq that al Qaeda would say, "Never mind"? Not Jack Murtha. Not any Democrat or Republican who has questioned the war. One could even ask if in making such a claim Cheney was being a tad "dishonest."

Cheney finished up with the "we will not retreat" mantra. He had nothing new to say about what his administration can do to end the war — or U.S. involvement in Iraq — in the near-term. He was playing to his base, throwing out the same old/same old reasons for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq. That Bush and Cheney still have to explain the war and that they had to reverse course on Operation Smear Murtha indicates that Bush and his lieutenants remain alienated and isolated in a bunker of their own making.