Weekly Shredder 2:
July 16 Stump Speech by President Bush
by J. Daniel Janzen

President Bush is big on personal responsibility. His current stump speech, as delivered last week at the Raleigh County Armory Civic Center in Beckley, W.Va., includes the line, "If you're a CEO in corporate America, you are responsible for telling the truth to your shareholders and employees." Can President Bush, often called the CEO president, therefore be counted on for complete honesty with the electorate? As he details the accomplishments of his first term and asks for another, is he telling it like it is, or is he trying to cook the books? As Shredder fans know, the truth — or lack thereof — is in the text.

The President covers a lot of ground on the campaign trail, from the economy to health care to his courageous stand on the sexual trafficking of minors. For the moment, we'll focus on his remarks concerning the war in Iraq and related matters.

For archives, audio, and background about the column, click here.

In spite of the faulty intelligence, unresolved issues and unanswered questions that have plagued our efforts to date, President Bush has cut through the fog of war to develop a narrative that's clear and unambiguous. It goes something like this: In response to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, we brought democracy to Afghanistan, rid Iraq of WMD and stopped a major nuclear proliferation network. In this way, we became a beacon of peace and freedom to the world.

This is a stirring vision — one that would seem to compel another four years for the Bush administration. Unfortunately, none of it is true.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We saw war and grief arrive on a quiet September morning. So we pursued the terrorist enemy across the world. We have captured or killed many key leaders of the Al Qaeda network. And we will stay on the hunt until justice is served and America is safe. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: We confronted the dangers of state-sponsored terror and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

In all fairness, maybe President Bush didn't mean to imply a connection between our campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq and the still-unresolved question of WMD. Maybe he was referring instead to his tough stance on North Korea's nuclear program. On the other hand —

PRESIDENT BUSH: We removed a declared enemy of America, who had the capability of producing weapons of mass destruction, and could have passed that capability to terrorists bent on acquiring them.

OK, that does seem pretty unequivocal. We addressed the issue of Saddam's vaunted WMD capability last week; let's chalk this one up in the "not quite true" column and move on.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Three years ago, there was a proliferation network run by A.Q. Khan. The CIA discovered the plot. We have disrupted it and dismantled the organization, and the American people are safer for it.

To the good people of West Virginia, this must have sounded like it all happened on the president's watch — the discovery, the disruption, the dismantlement and the safety. As it happens, the network was widely known for decades, and considered to be closely entwined with the intelligence service and military of Pakistan; after all, Khan was the leader of that nation's nuclear program and the father of the so-called Islamic Bomb. When Khan finally confessed his evildoing early this year, shocked Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf responded with a full pardon. But wait — wouldn't that make it impossible to fully investigate the network's extent and activities? How can we be sure it's no longer a threat? Surely President Bush would want to pressure this key US ally to subject Khan to thorough interrogation. Nope — he voiced full support for the pardon. Case closed.

Maybe President Bush was right. Like President Ford's pardon of former President Richard M. Nixon, the decision to let A.Q. Khan off the hook frees us to move forward instead of dwelling on the past. What matters now is to address the root causes of our security problems. Rest assured — Bush is on it.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We must work to change the conditions that give rise to terror in the Middle East...

Outstanding! Surely this includes reviving the roadmap for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, challenging Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on the hated security wall, working to establish a more amicable US dialogue with the Arab street? Not so fast; he's actually talking about:

...the poverty and the hopelessness and the resentment that terrorists can exploit. Life in that region will be far more hopeful and peaceful when men and women can choose their own leaders, when the people decide their own future.

There's no question that poverty, hopeless and resentment are fertile ground for terrorism. But what's striking here is the notion that democracy, even in a region not known for its love of America, will automatically lead to a pro-US government. That sure wasn't the case the last time neighboring Iran held free elections; of course, the CIA went ahead and overthrew that government. What if the Iraqi people, seeking to overcome the humiliation of the US occupation, decide that their own future should take a nationalistic, independent direction — say, one that doesn't include signing away their oilfields to US companies? Or, heaven forbid, if Muqtada al-Sadr were to declare his candidacy for the new Iraqi parliament? Not many Iraqis seemed inclined to back our original prospective candidate, Ahmed Chalabi.

OK, never mind about Iraq. Maybe President Bush was just raising the prospect of free elections in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking of democracy ...

PRESIDENT BUSH: Afghanistan was a terrorist state. It was a training camp for Al Qaeda killers. Because we acted, Afghanistan is a rising democracy.

"Rising" might not be the best choice of words, given the repeated postponement of those promised democratic elections. Creating the necessary conditions for democracy has turned out to be a tricky matter in Afghanistan; the security situation there has been deteriorating steadily since the US turned its attention to Iraq. But democracy does offer some hope for the people of Afghanistan — specifically, its warlords, who are likely to field their own parliamentary candidates to legitimize their power.

PRESIDENT BUSH: By serving the ideal of liberty, we serve the deepest ideals of our country. You see, freedom is not America's gift to the world; freedom is the Almighty God's gift to every man and woman in this world. (Applause.)

He's right when he says freedom is not America's gift to the world — just ask all those people we've detained as potential security threats in violation of US and international law. Speaking figuratively, of course; you can't really ask them because nobody knows where they are. Not their families, not their lawyers, not their embassies, sometimes not even the International Red Cross.

PRESIDENT BUSH: We have a war to win, and the world is counting on us to lead the cause of freedom and peace. (Applause.)

This is a nice thought, but it differs somewhat from the perception of the Committee of Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change. On June 16, 2004, this bipartisan group of 27 retired senior military and foreign service officers released a statement at the National Press Club reading in part, "Never in the two and a quarter centuries of our history has the United States been so isolated among the nations, so broadly feared and distrusted." And, more specifically, "The United States suffers from close identification with autocratic regimes in the Muslim world, and from the perception of unquestioning support for the policies and actions of the present Israeli Government."

The committee's statement also cites negative public opinion polls throughout the world. Maybe they were thinking of the report released by the Pew Global Attitudes Project last March, which found: "A year after the war in Iraq, discontent with America and its policies has intensified rather than diminished.... Perceptions of American unilateralism remain widespread in European and Muslim nations, and the war in Iraq has undermined America's credibility abroad."

PRESIDENT BUSH: And we know that, for our blessed nation, the best days lie ahead.

Even a broken clock tells the truth twice a day.

E-mail J. Daniel Janzen at dan at clownyard dot com.