*** ORBUSMAX GUEST OP/ED ***
Bush's Two Front War - By Warren E. Peterson
May 31, 2004
First, a disclaimer, the abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison should
be condemned and the perpetrators punished to the full extent of the law. But
the tragedy of the scandal goes beyond the crimes and misdeeds of a few prison
guards and their superiors. It has given our enemies, both foreign and
domestic, a huge propaganda victory. It has provided the Bush haters more ammunition
for assaulting the President, never mind that these attacks come while the
nation is at war. The War on Terror is unlike any war we have fought before but
it is a war even so. The stakes are nothing less than our freedom and way of
life. But instead of concentrating on actions necessary to win the war, the
President and the military are forced to spend valuable time on a scandal that has
taken on a life of its own. The media trumpets every new photo or video as
more evidence of widespread abuses rather than merely more visuals of the same
scene. Political opponents of the President, like Ted Kennedy, go so far as to
equate the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib with Saddam's atrocities at the same
facility.
One focus of the Left's (and unfortunately many Democrats) attack is
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The old Harry Truman "The Buck Stops Here"
slogan is used to call for his resignation. Some have even charged that Rumsfeld
directly authorized the humiliation and torture of War on Terror detainees.
They say low ranked guards can't have done such maltreatment on their own. They
must have been operating on orders from officers and civilian leadership all
the way to the top of the chain of command. Well, maybe it was just the actions
of some poorly trained and supervised guards and goes no further than that.
Two of the accused guards have stated that they did what they did on their own
authority. How else do you explain them taking such incriminating photographs
of the mistreatment? Remember the news reports of high school girls humiliating
and viciously assaulting other girls in a cheerleader's initiation rite or
the stories about a group of boys beating each other just for the excitement.
And these incidents were also video-taped. Should we be shocked if young men and
women, in a war, dealing with thugs and killers, violate the standards of
conduct expected of American service men and women?
Add all of this to the rash of books critical of Bush written by former
generals, politicians, media stars and even Watergate felon John Dean; looking to
relive his fifteen minutes of fame, and Bush has a two front war. One is a hot
war being fought with tanks, guns and bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq and the
other is a domestic war taking place on the airwaves and in the film and print
of American media. Of course, it is a presidential election year and neither
Bush nor any other president should be exempt from scrutiny, but the hatred and
bitterness apparent in the rhetoric used to savage Bush boarders on, if not
embraces, anti Americanism. Listen to Ted Kennedy, Robert Byrd, Nancy Pelosi and
other prominent Democrats scourge the President in terms Bush haters and
Osama bin Laden love to hear. Surely they know, regardless of their position on
the wisdom of going to war in Iraq, that we must see the Iraq campaign through
to victory (defined as a free and democratic Iraq). Surely they must know that
their words give hope to the insurgents and cause greater danger for our
troops. The message is clear. Just hold out until the election and a new
administration will fix all of Bush's mistakes by getting out of Iraq and offering an
accommodation with radical Islam. They, and their fellow travelers on the
political left, are willing to suffer an American defeat in Iraq if it will lead to
removal of George Bush next November. Shameful! Americans need to respond by
handing the Democrats a major defeat from the state house to the White House.
Maybe then, the Democrat Party of Scoop Jackson, Sam Nunn and Joe Lieberman
will arise and provide adult leadership to a party misled by Bill Clinton and
hijacked by Al Gore, Howard Dean and others of their ilk.
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Warren E. Peterson graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, served
three and a half years in the Navy, one term in the Washington State House of
Representatives and is now retired after 34 years with Boeing.