Cheney: hippies and Democrats undermining War on Terror

Vice President Cheney speaking to a Heritage Foundation audience:

"In the early 1970s, the far left wing turned the Democratic Party away from the confident Cold War stance of President Truman, President Kennedy, and Senator Scoop Jackson. The result, as we know, was ...the beginning of a long period in which the American people largely declined to trust the Democratic Party in matters of national security... Today, as the United States faces a new kind of enemy and a new kind of war, the far left is again taking hold of the Democratic party's agenda. The prevailing mindset, combined with a series of ill-considered actions in the House and Senate over the last several months, causes me to wonder whether today's Democratic leaders fully appreciate the nature of the danger this country faces in the war on terror -- a war that was declared against us by jihadists, a war in which the United States went on offense after 9/11, a war whose central front, in the opinion and actions of the enemy, is Iraq. "

"...Opponents of our military action there have called Iraq a diversion from the real conflict, a distraction from the business of fighting and defeating Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda network."

"Yet the evidence is flatly to the contrary. And the critics conveniently disregard the words of bin Laden himself. 'The most serious issue today for the whole world," he said, "is this third world war [that is] raging in [Iraq].' He calls it 'a war of destiny between infidelity and Islam.' He said, 'The whole world is watching this war,' and that it will end in 'victory and glory or misery and humiliation.' And in words directed at the American people, bin Laden declares, 'The war is for you or for us to win. If we win it, it means your defeat and disgrace forever.' This leader of al-Qaeda has referred to Baghdad as the capital of the caliphate. He has also said, 'Success in Baghdad will be success for the United States. Failure in Iraq is the failure of the United States. Their defeat in Iraq will mean defeat in all their wars.' "

"Obviously, the terrorists have no illusion about the importance of the struggle in Iraq. They have not called it a distraction or a diversion from their war against the United States. They know it is a vital front in that war, and it's where they have chosen to make a stand. Our Marines are fighting al Qaeda terrorists in Anbar province. U.S. and Iraqi forces recently killed al Qaeda terrorists in Baghdad, who were responsible for numerous bomb attacks. Iraq's relevance to the war on terror simply could not be more plain. Here at home, that makes one thing, above all, very clear: If you support the war on terror, then it only makes sense to support it where the terrorists are fighting us. (Applause.)"

PAF bites his tongue hard and resists the urge to say to Mr. Cheney what he said to Senator Leahy.

There are a number of things wrong with the Vice President's justification for continuing his war, so many it's hard to know where to begin. So here's a couple of points to start with.

First, in a deliberate and cynically ahistorical misrepresentation, Cheney suggests that the primary significance of the Iraq war is and has been about al Qaeda and the "War on Terror", and we know this to be false. Iraq had nothing to do with al Qaeda until the US occupation of Iraq created a big, juicy, red-white-and-blue target right in the neighborhood which would be almost irresistable to any self-respecting jihadist. Further, Cheney's war has created a colossal public relations windfall for al Qaeda throughout the Islamic world by appearing to confirm Osama's primary propaganda claim that the US is seeking military domination of the Middle East as part of an aggressive war against Islam. To the extent that the Iraq war represents an opportunity for al Qaeda, it is an opportunity which the Vice President and his comic sidekick have created for them and delivered to them on a platter. Cheney's war has been good for al Qaeda, so it is seriously twisted for the Vice President to blame the war's critics for al Qaeda's good fortune.

But al-Qaeda linked jihadists are a relatively small part of the insurgency in Iraq, which is primarily a struggle of Sunni nationalists against an occupying army (layered on top of a low-grade sectarian civil war). Despite what Osama says, the war in Iraq is not primarily about him and his jihadist allies, and the Vice President is wrong to allow Osama to take credit for a struggle in which he and his allies have played a marginal role. Although we face defeat in Iraq, this political reality has everything to do with the fact that most Iraqis don't want us there, and has almost nothing to do with al Qaeda, which has no popular base of support in Iraq. Of course Osama will try to claim this as a victory for propaganda purposes. And the Vice President, for his own political purposes, is defining this struggle in the very terms which Osama wants him to, and making it easier for Osama to claim victory when Cheney's unnecessary, criminal and tragically doomed war finally comes to an end.


Oh, and one more thing, Mr. Vice President: go fuck yourself.