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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PROLIFE who wrote (637664)	10/4/2004 3:41:56 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Bush war stance sends mixed message on democratic values By Cokie Roberts and Steven V. Roberts THIS campaign is really turning nasty. Team Bush has clearly embarked on a strategy that tries to undermine critics of its Iraq policy by branding them as closet traitors who disparage our troops and comfort our enemies. This is gutter politics that would be unacceptable in any campaign year. But in 2004, as the Los Angeles Times put it recently, their approach is "flat- out disgusting.' President Bush is running for re-election on a platform of exporting democracy to Iraq and the broader Middle East. Follow our example, he tells the world, be more like America. Yet the president and his supporters are acting in a profoundly undemocratic and even un- American way. There are plenty of legitimate criticisms to be made of John Kerry's positions on Iraq. When Republicans use the word "incoherent' to describe the Democratic candidate, it's hard to disagree with them. And Kerry's plans to stabilize that country from recruiting more allies to training more Iraqi policemen offer little that's new. The "flip-flopper' charge works because Kerry has not come across to many voters as either strong-willed or clear-headed. Decisive majorities continue to prefer the president as a more reliable leader in the battle against terrorism. But Team Bush does not want a debate about the real situation in Iraq, because they fear that's a debate they can't win. And the voting public is starting to question the administration's candor. In a recent Time magazine poll, 55 percent say the situation in Iraq "is worse than Bush has reported,' while only 37 percent describe the president as "truthful in describing the situation' in Iraq. That's a remarkable vote of no confidence on the president's veracity in the middle of a war. Moreover, in a new ABC/Washington Post poll, 51 percent say the war was not "worth fighting.' And these doubts are not just coming from Democrats. Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, recently described Bush's Iraq policy as "beyond pitiful, it's beyond embarrassing, it's now in the zone of dangerous.' Victory, he argued, is a "grand illusion' puffed up by the White House propaganda machine. "Right now we're not winning,' said Hagel, a Vietnam veteran. "Things are getting worse.' But the president and his allies won't confront these criticisms. Their reaction is to intimidate and discredit their critics. And make no mistake, these are not casual comments or slips of the tongue. They are part of a carefully crafted strategy. We know talking points when we see them. At a Rose Garden press conference recently with Iraqi leader Ayad Allawi, the president set the tone by warning, "You can embolden an enemy by sending mixed messages.' Speaker Dennis Hastert also argued that the terrorists would prefer a Kerry victory. And Sen. Orrin Hatch objected to Democratic criticisms of Allawi by saying on the Senate floor, "When you undermine our principal ally in a war against terror and tyranny, you are undermining our cause.' Hatch and the others have it exactly wrong. Trying to suppress criticism in the middle of a war is doubly dangerous because the stakes are so high. Sending troops into battle is the most critical decision any president ever makes. And that decision demands more public debate, not less. Dissenting in a time of war is a courageous act of patriotism. It doesn't make us weaker; it makes us stronger. Any president has to be able to tell the relatives of dead soldiers that their sacrifice was essential to preserving America's security. And he can't hide behind "grand illusions' in doing that. More than 1,000 families have now lost loved ones in Iraq, with many more to come, and they deserve honesty from the president, not political spin. Illusions might win elections, but they don't win wars. They only postpone the inevitable outrage. Didn't Vietnam teach us that? It's deception that tears the nation apart, not telling the truth. By trying to silence his critics, the president is the one sending a "mixed message' that America doesn't really mean it when we preach democratic values, and that dissent only has to be tolerated when it's convenient. More seriously, he's saying that he, and only he, has the right answers. That he never makes mistakes. That he cannot learn from experience or history. That's not just dangerous that's dumb. Cokie Roberts is the chief congressional analyst for ABCNEWS. Her husband Steven V. Roberts is a professor at George Washington University and contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report. r