Now, it’s not easy to debate someone who’s hiding behind a curtain, but Cheney did a pretty good job of it with his Oct. 10 address. Why, exactly, is it that Cheney’s so persuasive? Maybe because he says things like this: “Weakness and drift and vacillation in the face of danger invite attacks. Strength and resolve and decisive action defeat attacks before they can arrive on our soil.” Hardline? Sure. But undeniably true, nonetheless.
Another fiction we’ve heard a lot about is the “rush to judgment to go to war.” Dowd and Joe Klein of Time are among the many journalists who’ve joined Walsh’s unnamed “Bush family insider” in leveling this charge.
But Cheney correctly observes there was no real hurry on the part of the world to get rid of Saddam. He ignored “12 years of diplomacy, more than a dozen Security Council resolutions, hundreds of U.N. weapons inspectors, thousands of flights to enforce the no-fly zones and even strikes against military targets in Iraq” before we finally acted to depose him in March.
Twelve years of preparation is hardly a rush to war. It’s barely even a crawl.
One highlight of the 2000 campaign was the vice presidential debate between Cheney and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. Many of Cheney’s critics must have watched that and learned he’s capable of destroying their arguments when they go head to head with him. Maybe that’s why they only attack him now with anonymous quotes.
But on the record or off, their arguments fall flat. Of course there will be some bumps, but the administration has us on the right road. We will help the Iraqi people build a democratic government and a secure country. And you can quote Dick Cheney on that.