[MAI-NOT] Bush eating words on war's end
Jonathan Larson
September 11, 2003
BY LYNN SWEET WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF
http://www.suntimes.com/output/sweet/cst-edt-sweet11.html
Last May, when a triumphant President Bush declared that "major
combat operations in Iraq have ended'' from the deck of the USS
Abraham Lincoln, I would not have been surprised if that clip -- or
the one of Bush in a flight suit -- ended up in a campaign ad.
The scenes still will, I think, be part of a 2004 presidential
election spot. Only it will be Democrats paying for the television
time to show Bush on the aircraft carrier, not Republicans. That's
because the mission in Iraq, contrary to a "mission accomplished''
banner that provided a backdrop for Bush, has not been accomplished.
More soldiers have died since May 1 than between the start of the war
in March and April 30.
Soldiers are staying longer in Iraq than they had anticipated, and it
is only now that the Bush White House is spelling out how long --
years -- and how much -- some $87 billion to start -- the occupation
will cost.
Democrats mostly are saying that Bush misled people that May Day,
because a reasonable person could take from that speech that the
Iraqi War was more or less over.
After all, Bush made the speech from a ship returning home to San
Diego from the Persian Gulf because the air strikes had ended.
I know Bush also said in the same speech, "The battle of Iraq is one
victory in a war on terror that began on Sept. 11, 2001, and still
goes on.'' Today is the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks,
when hijackers crashed four jets into the North and South towers of
the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Stony Creek
Township, Pa. Somehow, however, there is a distinction to be made
between the ongoing "war on terror'' in general stemming from Sept.
11 and the Iraqi War and occupation in particular.
Republicans, including Iraqi War architect Deputy Defense Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz, defending the president, said Bush did not say the
Iraqi War was over, only that the "major combat phase'' was complete.
And I thought parsing sentences went out with President Clinton. Sen.
Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) on Tuesday grilled Wolfowitz about the chaotic
U.S. occupation in Iraq.
"What was the planning?'' asked Kennedy. "And how do you possibly
explain the inadequacy of that planning, and who's going to pay the
price for the inadequacy of that planning?
Here's some of the testy exchange:
Wolfowitz: You say we didn't plan for when the war was over. The
problem is that the war isn't over. The problem is that the Baathist
regime . . .
Kennedy: You mean, in spite of the president's statement out on that
aircraft carrier, when he made his statement, you're saying now the
war . . .
Wolfowitz: Go back and read the statement, senator . . .
Kennedy: I listened to it. I heard the statement.
Wolfowitz: He said . . .
Kennedy: I saw that banner that was there.
Wolfowitz: He said it was the end of major combat operations, which
indeed it was.
Kennedy: OK. Now you distinguish between the end of major combat and
the war isn't over. That's very interesting for service men and women
that are out there, very interesting.''
"George Bush is going to rue the day . . . that he did that stunt on
the aircraft carrier,'' Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry
McAuliffe said after I asked him about it during a breakfast with
reporters on Wednesday.
McAuliffe also used the occasion of my question to resurrect another
issue, Bush's military service. Bush flew to the aircraft carrier in
a Navy jet and then swaggered around the deck visiting with the
sailors and posing for pictures in his flight suit.
McAuliffe reminded us that there is still some mystery about what
Bush "was required to do in Alabama in the National Guard.'' It's
never been proved that Bush showed up for all his drill duties when
he was in the Texas Air National Guard, and the controversy never got
much traction in the 2000 campaign.
Said McAuliffe, "I do not think that he will be using the video of
that aircraft carrier landing as part of the Bush re-election
campaign.''
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warmest regards
Jonathan
web site at:
elegant-technology.com
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