I understand that many in this country do not have the same views as I on domestic or economic issues. Certainly not everyone thinks they are pre-ordained to start a society of super-children fathered by Ralph Nader. So I can understand that Republicans want to vote the party line to protect what they feel are important interests, but for those of you who are not die-hard Republicans and instead are voting for Bush solely on the fact that he is "strong on terror," be sure to look past the shameless Sept. 11 exploitation to the real facts.
Bush's first war as commander in chief, Afghanistan, has been a massive failure - unfortunately you don't get that picture from the national media. The administration has not caught the man truly responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. Now I'm sorry, but if my cowboy president promises me that he's going to "smoke 'em out" I want to believe him.
Clearly I have too much time, because I have looked up the Cowboy Code of Ethics as it appeared in John Wayne's eulogy. One provision: "a cowboy is faithful to what is entrusted to him." Bush was entrusted with removing those who were responsible for the loss of over 3,000 innocent Americans and he did not.
Bin Laden was known to be in Tora Bora when U.S. forces pulled out on Nov. 15, 2001, allowing thousands of al-Qaeda troops to stream into Pakistan and safety. Barry Posen, a political scientist at MIT, called this operation "a disaster, universally acknowledged as such and never explained ... so this is disturbing - a war on terror that doesn't focus on terrorists." When most troops were pulled out of Afghanistan to fight in Iraq, the country became a breeding ground for terrorists.
The U.S.-installed government rules a small area around the capital, Kabul, and the rest is run by warlords, apparently a step above terrorists in our book, because Afghanistan has moved over into the category of Bush successes. "An election is coming," the White House cries.
Christian Parenti of The Nation, currently reporting from Afghanistan, found the election picture a tad bleaker. He has two voter-registration cards, although he is not an Afghan citizen and found that four regions near Pakistan have registered 140 percent of the adult population. He reports massive amounts of voter intimidation by warlords and others in official power. There is also general malaise among the citizens who feel that the election is fixed in the interest of the United States and the warlords should be brought to justice rather than allowed to govern. This election is far from "free and fair" and the democracy it creates will remain so as well.
The Bush administration felt the need to move on from Afghanistan and into Iraq. I will not debate its merits because there are none. "Wrong war, wrong place, wrong time" is true.
If you don't believe it when John Kerry said it, take it from another source. Try this - an MIT professor, Steven van Evera, said that "the administration defined it as a broad war on terror, including groups that have never taken a swing at the United States and never will. It leads to a loss of focus. Al-Qaeda escapes through the cracks. And you make enemies of the people you need against al-Qaeda."
The Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive war has failed the test, not the "global test" but the reality test. Countless Iraqis have died, over 1,000 U.S. lives have been lost and over 7,000 men and women have been maimed because Bush and his cronies rushed to war on false pretenses.
Bush's war did not defeat those who inflicted the tragedies of Sept. 11, it diverted the necessary attention from our war on them. It has not made us safer and it should not ensure another Bush presidency.
