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Cheney has no credibility on Iraq

By PHILIP GAILEY
Published August 21, 2005

I wish Dick Cheney would stay in his secret hideaway, wherever it is, the one he goes to when the terror alert in Washington is at maximum level. Every time the vice president ventures out to defend the administration's bungled war in Iraq, he only adds insult to injury. Even more so than President Bush, Cheney is the cold embodiment of the delusions, arrogance, stubbornness, incompetence and denial that got us into this messy war. He has no credibility on the subject.

These days, you won't hear Cheney saying, as he did two months ago, that the Iraqi insurgency is in its "last throes." Instead, as he told a friendly audience of combat veterans last week, "there is still tough fighting" to come. The United States "will not relent" in pressing the war. U.S. forces will hunt down Iraqi insurgents "one at a time if necessary." Victory in Iraq is "critical to the future security of the U.S." and the country must not lose its resolve to finish the job.

Easy to say when the war doesn't touch you or your family or wealthy friends, who enjoy tax cuts while our soldiers bleed in Iraq and their families struggle with hardships at home. At least Bush has broken down and wept with the families of fallen soldiers in private meetings on military bases. According to a story in Newsweek magazine last week, the president choked up and began to cry in a meeting at MacDill AFB in Tampa with families who had lost loved ones in the war. "I am sorry, I'm so sorry," he told them.

We have yet to hear the words "I'm sorry" pass from Cheney's lips. If he has shown any emotion over the loss of American lives, now nearly 1,900, it must be a state secret. The vice president has visited stateside military hospitals to present Purple Hearts to the wounded. He can only imagine what combat must be like. After all, he avoided military service in Vietnam with repeated student deferments, once explaining that he had "other priorities" at the time.

At a time when public support for the president and the war is tanking, Cheney is the last person who should be sent out to stiffen our resolve to stay the course in Iraq. Last week, while Bush was vacationing at his Texas ranch, with a small army of antiwar activists camped outside the gate, the vice president was dispatched to Springfield, Mo., to speak at the 73rd annual convention of the Military Order of Purple Hearts, a safe audience.

Cheney suggested that Americans who are ready to give up the fight in Iraq should take a lesson from the American Revolution, a war that was going badly until George Washington rallied his ragtag rebel army and defeated the British.

"The victories in 1776 were few, and the condition of the Army was dreadful," Cheney told the veterans. "By Christmas time our men were cold, hungry and exhausted, and many of them didn't even have boots to wear. The volunteers were near the end of their rope and thousands of enlistments were set to expire on New Year's Day. These men were bound and determined to leave, so the Continental Army was about to evaporate. General Washington himself said, "I think the game is pretty near up."'

So how are things for American soldiers in Iraq? Victories against a terrorist insurgency are few and hard to recognize, and the condition of the Army could be better. Many soldiers don't have the armor they need to protect themselves from roadside bombs and gunfire. They're hot and exhausted and can't wait to go home. Enlistments are set to expire, but the Pentagon keeps extending them. However, Cheney need not worry. The U.S. military presence in Iraq is not about to evaporate. To the contrary, it looks like our soldiers will be stuck there for years.

The war in Iraq is not the American Revolution. At least Americans knew what they were fighting for when they broke away from King George's rule. It was a war with a purpose. George Washington commanded the respect of his miserable volunteer Army and his leadership, even in the darkest times, inspired them to fight on. It's too late for Bush and Cheney to rally the country behind their Iraq policy. Bush's wartime leadership has been anything but inspiring. The president's approval rating is at 42 percent, an all-time low, and most Americans now believe the war was a costly mistake that has not made our country more secure, as Bush promised.

There is not much left to support except our brave troops. May God bless and keep them.

Philip Gailey's e-mail address is gailey@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 19, 2005, 23:34:02]