From The Los Angeles Times, 9/7/04:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer7sep07,1,1673228.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
GOP Convention's Looney Tunes
By ROBERT SCHEER
An advertising guru once warned his acolytes never to confuse the
thing being sold with the thing itself.
Good sizzle can always sell a lousy steak.
This strategy is on brilliant display these days as the Republicans
emerge post-convention, bristling with tough-sounding talk about
"girlie men" and shamelessly attacking decorated war veteran John F.
Kerry as some kind of traitorous wimp.
The same leaders who have never apologized for being totally oblivious
to the terrorist threat before Sept. 11 continue to mawkishly exploit
the tragedy for political gain, all while trumpeting far-off victories
for democracy that dissolve like mirages under the mildest scrutiny.
The Republicans' strategy is to counter critique with caricature, and
they do it with all the panache of an old Roadrunner cartoon,
effectively smashing Kerry with rhetorical frying pans.
"Even in this post-9/11 period, Sen. Kerry doesn't appear to
understand how the world has changed. He talks about leading a 'more
sensitive war on terror,' as though Al Qaeda will be impressed with
our softer side," ***** Cheney mocked in his convention speech, reusing
a joke that wasn't funny the first time.
This from a man who secured five deferments from Vietnam because he
had "other priorities" at the time.
But it was Cheney's own war "fever," as Colin Powell described it to
the Washington Post's Bob Woodward, that was crucial in the
president's reckless decision to chase U.N. inspectors out of Iraq --
lest they confirm that the White House was hyping a WMD threat that
didn't exist.
"There is nothing complicated about supporting our troops in combat,"
said a sneering George W. Bush, challenging Kerry's patriotism because
he dared vote against a version of an $87-billion bill that will
neatly turn around the fortunes of Cheney's old outfit, Halliburton.
So far, the Texas-based corporation has accomplished next to nothing
when it comes to bringing peace, stability or even a steady supply of
running water and electricity to Iraq and Afghanistan.
But what should we expect from a man who used his family name to get
out of serving in Vietnam but has yet to condemn those among his staff
and financial contributors who floated the phony Swift boat ad attack
on Kerry's wartime courage.
This is the Orwellian cartoon we live with every day that Bush remains
president, in which supporting troops means sending them to die while
occupying a deeply troubled country that posed no threat to us; in
which a man hit with "only shrapnel" when serving his country is
considered akin to a traitor for speaking out against an immoral war
when he returns.
In this Looney Tunes matinee, the loudest voices are those of the
blustering schoolyard bully who crudely masks his own inadequacies by
calling others sissies and punks.
The GOP faithful ate up Cheney's barroom riff on Kerry's alleged
"sensitive" side just as they did earlier when Bush's shill, TV
talk-show host Dennis Miller, made the crack that Kerry and running
mate John Edwards should "get a room."
But, in a more sober mood, can any reasonable person really disagree
with Kerry's call for a "more effective, more thoughtful, more
strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches
out to other nations and brings them to our side"?
The fact is, the money hustlers and Beltway power brokers know in
their gut that Bush is in way over his head and Cheney is a loose
cannon -- and that together they have alienated U.S. allies and
enflamed the Islamic world while making only marginal gains against Al
Qaeda.
But these people don't care, because the fix is in.
See, Bush promised at the convention that in a second term he would
continue to ensure that the rich get richer, no matter how many unfair
tax breaks, wasteful military contracts or union-busting laws it
takes.
And if you disagree with this son of privilege -- a man who never
earned an honest dollar on his own but acts as if the lives of the
unemployed and working poor are of no consequence -- well, you must be
an "economic girlie man."
At least, so says mega-millionaire Arnold Schwarzenegger, the macho
Hollywood warrior who has never experienced combat himself.
This cartoon is all a great joke, except for the price we will pay if
the audience buys into it.
We are not watching a movie, and the stakes are very real.
Bush's convention acceptance speech was a clear ideological
endorsement of the neoconservative vision that America can and should
dominate the world with military force.
Four more years of George W. Bush would mean more blood flowing -- and
none of it would be fake.
_____________________________________________________________
By the way, anyone ever figure out where that $87 billion in Iraq cash
went?
Harry
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