Washington Post: Bush campaign built on lies

Of course, they can’t actually use the word “lie,” since only Democrats lie. But in this piece, Dana Milbank and Jim VandeHei creep perilously close to it. Here’s a summary graph:

Scholars and political strategists say the ferocious Bush assault on Kerry this spring has been extraordinary, both for the volume of attacks and for the liberties the president and his campaign have taken with the facts.

And just one of the many examples they cite:

“Senator Kerry,” Cheney said, “has questioned whether the war on terror is really a war at all. He said, quote, ‘I don’t want to use that terminology.’ In his view, opposing terrorism is far less of a military operation and more of a law enforcement operation.”

But Kerry did not say what Cheney attributes to him. The quote Cheney used came from a March interview with the New York Times, in which Kerry used the phrase “war on terror.” When he said “I don’t want to use that terminology,” he was discussing the “economic transformation” of the Middle East—not the war on terrorism.

Emphasis added.

Filed under: politics/2004

Gore speaks

A few words from the man who should have been President.

George W. Bush promised us a foreign policy with humility. Instead, he has brought us humiliation in the eyes of the world.

What happened at the prison, it is now clear, was not the result of random acts by “a few bad apples,” it was the natural consequence of the Bush Administration policy that has dismantled those wise constraints and has made war on America’s checks and balances.

The abuse of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib flowed directly from the abuse of the truth that characterized the Administration’s march to war and the abuse of the trust that had been placed in President Bush by the American people in the aftermath of September 11th.

There was then, there is now and there would have been regardless of what Bush did, a threat of terrorism that we would have to deal with. But instead of making it better, he has made it infinitely worse. We are less safe because of his policies.

He has exposed Americans abroad and Americans in every U.S. town and city to a greater danger of attack by terrorists because of his arrogance, willfulness, and bungling at stirring up hornet’s nests that pose no threat whatsoever to us.

How dare the incompetent and willful members of this Bush/Cheney Administration humiliate our nation and our people in the eyes of the world and in the conscience of our own people. How dare they subject us to such dishonor and disgrace. How dare they drag the good name of the United States of America through the mud of Saddam Hussein’s torture prison.

Make no mistake, the damage done at Abu Ghraib is not only to America’s reputation and America’s strategic interests, but also to America’s spirit. It is also crucial for our nation to recognize – and to recognize quickly – that the damage our nation has suffered in the world is far, far more serious than President Bush’s belated and tepid response would lead people to believe.

This was done in our name, by our leaders.

These horrors were the predictable consequence of policy choices that flowed directly from this administration’s contempt for the rule of law.

In December of 2000, even though I strongly disagreed with the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to order a halt to the counting of legally cast ballots, I saw it as my duty to reaffirm my own strong belief that we are a nation of laws and not only accept the decision, but do what I could to prevent efforts to delegitimize George Bush as he took the oath of office as president.

I did not at that moment imagine that Bush would, in the presidency that ensued, demonstrate utter contempt for the rule of law and work at every turn to frustrate accountability…

So today, I want to speak on behalf of those Americans who feel that President Bush has betrayed our nation’s trust, those who are horrified at what has been done in our name, and all those who want the rest of the world to know that we Americans see the abuses that occurred in the prisons of Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and secret locations as yet undisclosed as completely out of keeping with the character and basic nature of the American people and at odds with the principles on which America stands.

I believe we have a duty to hold President Bush accountable – and I believe we will. As Lincoln said at our time of greatest trial, “We – even we here – hold the power, and bear the responsibility.”

Filed under: politics

How much is that Sarin in the window?

Early reports indicate that a recent roadside bomb in Iraq included an artillery shell containing Sarin gas.

Convenient timing for the war apologists, who, no doubt tired of equating torture with fraternity hazing or calling for the extermination of every living thing in Fallujah, have pounced. (See here, here and here for starters.)

Now ordinarily, I would take umbrage and go algebraic on their ass, and say something like: Ooh, .25 milliliters of sarin precursor per dead soldier! What a bargain!

But I’m feeling generous tonight. So let’s grant the other side their precious WMD. Let’s say that, contrary to all available evidence, there are large undiscovered stockpiles of working chemical and biological arms in Iraq; that Saddam had active programs of WMD development; that he was building more WMD right up until the tanks rolled into his house.

Granted all that, it would still be the case that the Iraq war and its aftermath have made us all far less safe. Every child shot in the street, every picture of an American torturing an Iraqi, every bomb that hits a mosque grows a new bin Laden. And we can’t kill them all. Indeed: we are a civilized nation, and if we want to remain such, we must not imagine that we can or might or should kill them all. So, if we want to win this so-called war on terror, all we can do is stop making enemies.

That of course does not mean that we should in any way give in to those we have already got, nor does it mean that I have the slightest sympathy for Islamic fundamentalism—nor any other kind of fundamentalism. What it means is in fact the exact opposite. We must make the fundamentalists and the would-be theocrats more like us, not become more like them. Sell them Coke and iPods. Get them reading our books. Read theirs.

To be absolutely clear: I am not advocating pacifism in the face of terror. I am advocating outwitting the motherfuckers. Bin Laden wants a clash of civilizations. Let’s not give him one. Let’s give every suicide bomber he wants to recruit something to live for, instead. Let’s export the American dream, not American military power.

Unfortunately, this advice comes a year or so too late for this generation. The disaster of Iraq has wiped out any hope that we will be free of terror in the next ten or twenty years. In the eyes of much of the Arab world, we’ve done nothing there but prove bin Laden right and justify whatever foul acts may be done to us in his name. Beyond the nearly 800 young Americans dead, beyond the thousands of wounded, beyond the thousands of Iraqis dead—men, women, children, innocent people just like you who wanted nothing but to live a decent life in peace—and beyond the billions of dollars spent, that is the price we have paid.

And what did we get for it? A couple liters of Sarin in a 20-year-old shell. Maybe. What a bargain!

Filed under: politics/war

Photo fetish

You may have noticed a slight downtick in posting hereabouts. Truth is, there’s little left to say about the disaster of Iraq, and yet, little else to talk about.

The awfulness of it all, from the lies to the ever-longer list of the dead, to the crimes at Abu Ghraib—and all of it, all of it for nothing—it defies at least my ability to do it justice. The big picture is too big.

So let’s look at one little pixel, so to speak. There are a bunch of pictures on DoD laptops of torture and humiliation at Abu Ghraib that the Republican party does not want you to see. Or so they say. I doubt that they care whether those photos are made public or not. What they do care about is keeping our collective focus on the photos and not the acts photographed.

Whether we see the photos or not, the crimes did happen. US soldiers committed them. US soldiers following orders set down by their superior officers, who in their turn were following the directives of their political masters in the Pentagon, CIA, and White House.

If we as a nation are to demonstrate that we are better than this, that these crimes though they were committed in our name did not have our consent, those political masters must be voted out of office.

The photos don’t matter. I don’t need to see them. I’m already ashamed.

Filed under: politics/war