Go to Original

    Bush-Cheney Flip-Flops Cost America in Blood
    By Joel Connelly
    The 0aSeattle Post-Intelligencer

    Wednesday 29 September 2004

"And the question in my mind is how many additional American 0acasualties is Saddam (Hussein) worth? And the answer is not that damned many."
-Dick Cheney (1992)

    As George W. Bush has lately shown, the tactic of 0asuccessfully defining your opponent is to political conflict what occupying the 0ahigh ground is to waging war.

    The Bush-Cheney campaign has gleefully labeled John 0aKerry a flip-flopper. But what of Bush-Cheney flip-flops? They're getting a lot 0aless ink, but America is paying a price in blood.

    Little noticed, and worthy of lengthy consideration, 0ais a speech delivered by then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney in 1992 to the 0aDiscovery Institute in Seattle.

    The words of our future vice president - defending 0athe decision to end Gulf War I without occupying Iraq - eerily foretell today's 0amorass. Here is what Cheney said in '92:

    "I would guess if we had gone in there, I would still 0ahave forces in Baghdad today. We'd be running the country. We would not have 0abeen able to get everybody out and bring everybody home.

    "And the final point that I think needs to be made is 0athis question of casualties. I don't think you could have done all of that 0awithout significant additional U.S. casualties. And while everybody was 0atremendously impressed with the low cost of the (1991) conflict, for the 146 0aAmericans who were killed in action and for their families, it wasn't a cheap 0awar.

    "And the question in my mind is how many additional 0aAmerican casualties is Saddam (Hussein) worth? And the answer is not that damned 0amany. So, I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from 0aKuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our 0aobjectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying 0ato take over and govern Iraq."

    How - given what he said then - does Cheney get off 0achallenging the judgment and strength of those who argue that we are bogged down 0aand shedding blood today?

    Is Saddam worth the lives of 1,046 (at last count) 0adead Americans, and 7,000 injured Americans?

    Dick Cheney posed the hard-nosed questions that 0ashould be asked by a president in time of war. George Bush is out on the 0acampaign trail boasting he's hard-nosed because he didn't ask how a "Mission 0aAccomplished!" could unravel.

    Kerry is taking a pounding from the relentless 0aRepublican message machine. A GOP TV ad shows Kerry windsurfing, with Strauss' "Blue Danube" waltz playing in the background, as the voice-over claims the 0anominee has shifted positions "whichever way the wind blows."

    In case the "mainstream" media are interested, or Fox 0aNews wants to balance its reporting to furnish a few moments of fairness, here 0aare a few Bush flip-flops that might be put before the voters:

    Nation-Building: As a candidate, Dubya 0atraveled the land in 2000 denouncing the Clinton administration for using U.S. 0atroops in what he called "nation-building."

    "I'm worried about an opponent who uses 0anation-building and the military in the same sentence," he told a rally. "My 0aview of the military is for our military to be properly prepared to fight and 0awin wars - therefore, (to) prevent war from happening in the first place."

    What are we doing in Iraq if not "nation-building?" 0aEnmeshed in Iraq, are we properly prepared to fight such crazies as the nuclear 0aweapon-equipped "Great Leader" of North Korea, Kim Jong Il?

    Our Real Enemy: Two days after 9/11, President 0aBush declared: "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It 0ais our No. 1 priority, and we will not rest until we find him."

    Six months later, laying political groundwork for the 0aIraq war, the president said: "I don't know where he is. I have no idea and I 0areally don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."

    The 9/11 Commission: The White House initially 0aopposed creation of an independent commission to investigate causes of the 9/11 0aatrocities. A July 2002 statement read: "The administration would oppose an 0aamendment that would create a new commission to conduct a similar review (to 0aCongress' investigation)."

    The administration reversed course five months later. 0aThe bipartisan commission, including former Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., 0adistinguished itself at hearings and in its findings and recommendations.

    Homeland Security: In the fall of 2001, Sens. 0aJohn McCain, R-Ariz., and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., proposed creating a 0aCabinet-level Department of Homeland Security.

    White House press secretary Ari Fleischer outlined 0athe administration's opposition in October 2001, saying Congress did not need to 0amake the director's job "a statutory post" and that "every agency of the 0agovernment has security concerns."

    A year later, the Bush administration was flaying 0aSen. Max Cleland, D-Ga. - a Vietnam triple amputee - for allegedly being an 0aobstacle to creation of the department. Anti-Cleland ads showing Osama bin Laden 0aand Saddam Hussein flashed across the TV screens of Georgia.

    Such are this administration's major national 0asecurity flip-flops. But other flips bear on our safety.

    During the 2000 campaign, candidate Bush pledged to 0alimit carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. It didn't happen. The 0apresident promised to support - or at least sign - renewal of Congress' 1994 ban 0aon military-style assault weapons. The Bush administration didn't lift a finger 0ato extend the ban, which recently expired.

    Out here on America's "Left Coast," candidate George 0aBush proclaimed himself a steadfast free trader. Even today, Republican State 0aChairman Chris Vance hammers Kerry as a flip-flopper on trade.

    How, then, to explain the president's 2002 decision 0ato slap tariffs of 8 to 30 percent on steel imports to the United States? (The 0atariffs were lifted after 21 months.)

    Answer: The steel-producing states of Pennsylvania, 0aOhio and West Virginia have 46 fought-over electoral votes in this year's 0aelection.

All republished content that appears on Truthout has been obtained by permission or license.