Truth Be Known,...
Mr. President and Mr.Vice president?
By: Tom Scott
Finally, an Iraq War hawk who is also a fifteen term veteran Democratic Congressman from Pennsylvania and 38-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps, John Murtha made the statement that:
"The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion. The American public is way ahead of us. The United States and coalition troops have done all they can in Iraq, but it is time for a change in direction. Our military is suffering. The future of our country is at risk. We cannot continue on the present course. It is evident that continued military action is not in the best interests of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf Region."
After reading Mr. Murtha’s statement I was reminded of a statement by a then brash young Texas Governor named George W. Bush who said:
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is."
And a statement by Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of the same brash young George W. Bush:
"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy."
It appears this was all more “ear candy” from Mr. Bush for a gullible American public.
As Bush and his fellow neo con Republicans chanted, “Wag the Dog” when President Clinton took military action against Bin Laden and claimed Clinton was trying to divert public opinion away from the important threat to national security posed by Clinton having an affair outside his marriage the political barrage was relentless.
Now when anyone questions Bush’s strategy for an explanation of an achievable goal or an exit strategy they are suddenly “trying to divert public opinion away from the important threat to national security in Iraq” and “trying to rewrite history” or at worst “cutting and running”.
No Mr. President, we just want to make sure that the story for history is the correct one and not the one that has been spoon-fed to an unsuspecting American populace and that there is a legitimate reason to stay any longer at the cost of billions of dollars a month and hundreds if not thousands of lives of Fathers, Mothers, Uncles, Aunts, Brothers, Sisters, Sons and Daughters.
Back when the Republican “get Clinton” mania trumped national security. The Republicans smelled political gain and political power in the Clinton sex scandal and would not let a little thing like terrorist attacking American embassies get in the way.
Their approach to Islamic terrorism and Bin Laden only became part of the conventional Republican mindset we find today after the 9-11 attacks. They downplayed the threat in their own minds because there had been great domestic political advantage in this way of looking at the issue under Clinton.
TRUTH BE KNOWN
Before the 9-11 attacks, Republicans and the Bush Neo Con Administration were simply asleep on the job.
The former FBI lead investigator of Islamic terrorism and Bin Laden, John O’Neill resigned just weeks before the 9-11 attacks because he claimed the Bush Administration was blocking his investigation of Saudi ties to Islamic terrorists attacking the United States.
The long and financially profitable ties between the Bush organization and Saudi business interests likely played a substantial role in mentally dismissing the urgency of the terrorist threat coming from that nation so they turned a blind eye.
Instead of planning military actions against Afghanistan, the Taliban and Bin Laden, they were negotiating with the Taliban for an oil pipeline designed to financially profit American oil companies. The same oil companies who have recently enjoyed record profits and who are now being investigated for lying to Congress about their participation in meetings with the highly secretive Vice president Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force.
It has been documented that these Taliban negotiations, some of which were held in Texas beginning when that same brash young Governor Bush sat in power in Austin, included military threats if the Taliban refused the oil pipeline deal. These negotiations and threats were occurring up until just before the 9-11 attacks.
Now, once again, instead of publicly dealing with the serious issues involved in Iraq, Mr. Bush and his lapdog neo con Republicans have again been attacking the character of anyone who raises any questions about their poor performance on national security issues and the quagmire in Iraq.
I am reminded of a previous statement by Vice president Dick Cheney, Bush’s personal attack dog, who said on Wednesday that accusations that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to justify the war were a “dishonest and reprehensible” political ploy and that critics are merely “trying to rewrite history”.
It was Cheney who made the now infamous statement:
“And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam (Hussein) worth? And the answer is not that damned many. So, I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq."
And now it is Cheney who is calling Democrats “opportunists” who are peddling “cynical and pernicious falsehoods” to gain political advantage while U.S. soldiers die in Iraq?
Shame on you Mr. Cheney, making statements like “Some of the most irresponsible comments have, of course, come from politicians who actually voted in favor of authorizing force against Saddam Hussein.”
Of course you conveniently forget that the intelligence reports that these politicians saw were carefully crafted by the Whitehouse Iraq Group that has brought us “plamegate” and headed by you Mr. Cheney.
How would you feel Mr. Cheney if the Democrats started bringing up all of your and your President’s Administrations statements now, after the fact?
Maybe it would be a good idea to do that, so both you and Mr. Bush could remember the words of your own Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice who, in January of 2000 said:
“The President must remember that the military is a special instrument. It is lethal, and it is meant to be. It is not a civilian police force. It is not a political referee. And it is most certainly not designed to build a civilian society.”
These are words to think about Mr. President and Mr. Vice president and to take to heart…..for Americas sake!
Tom Scott is Senior Investigative Reporter for Choice America Network.
