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Cheney Is Wrong About Me,
Wrong About War
By George S. McGovern
05/24/07 "
The Los Angeles Times " -- -- Vice President Dick
Cheney recently attacked my 1972 presidential platform and
contended that today’s Democratic Party has reverted to the
views I advocated in 1972. In a sense, this is a compliment,
both to me and the Democratic Party. Cheney intended no such
compliment. Instead, he twisted my views and those of my party
beyond recognition. The city where the vice president spoke,
Chicago, is sometimes dubbed “the Windy City.” Cheney converted
the chilly wind of Chicago into hot air.Cheney said that today’s
Democrats have adopted my platform from the 1972 presidential
race and that, in doing so, they will raise taxes. But my
platform offered a balanced budget. I proposed nothing new
without a carefully defined way of paying for it. By contrast,
Cheney and his team have run the national debt to an all-time
high.
He also said that the McGovern way is to surrender in Iraq and
leave the U.S. exposed to new dangers. The truth is that I
oppose the Iraq war, just as I opposed the Vietnam War, because
these two conflicts have weakened the U.S. and diminished our
standing in the world and our national security.
In the war of my youth, World War II, I volunteered for military
service at the age of 19 and flew 35 combat missions, winning
the Distinguished Flying Cross as the pilot of a B-24 bomber. By
contrast, in the war of his youth, the Vietnam War, Cheney got
five deferments and has never seen a day of combat - a record
matched by President Bush.
Cheney charged that today’s Democrats don’t appreciate the
terrorist danger when they move to end U.S. involvement in the
Iraq war. The fact is that Bush and Cheney misled the public
when they implied that Iraq was involved in the terrorist
attacks of 9/11. Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks. That
was the work of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda team. Cheney
and Bush blew the effort to trap Bin Laden in Afghanistan by
their sluggish and inept response after the 9/11 attacks.
They then foolishly sent U.S. forces into Iraq against the
advice and experience of such knowledgeable men as former
President George H.W. Bush, his secretary of State, James A.
Baker III, and his national security advisor, Brent Scowcroft.
Just as the Bush administration mistakenly asserted Iraq’s
involvement in the 9/11 attacks, it also falsely contended that
Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. When former Ambassador
Joseph Wilson exploded the myth that Iraq attempted to obtain
nuclear materials from Niger, Cheney’s top aide and other Bush
officials leaked to the media that Wilson’s wife was a CIA agent
(knowingly revealing the identity of a covert agent is illegal).
In attacking my positions in 1972 as representative of “that old
party of the early 1970s,” Cheney seems oblivious to the
realities of that time. Does he remember that the Democratic
Party, with me in the lead, reformed the presidential nomination
process to ensure that women, young people and minorities would
be represented fairly? The so-called McGovern reform rules are
still in effect and, indeed, have been largely copied by the
Republicans.
The Democrats’ 1972 platform was also in the forefront in
pushing for affordable healthcare, full employment with better
wages, a stronger environmental and energy effort, support for
education at every level and a foreign policy with less
confrontation and belligerence and more cooperation and
conciliation.
Cheney also still has his eyes closed to the folly of the
Vietnam War, in which 58,000 young Americans and more than 2
million Vietnamese died. Vietnam was no threat to the United
States.
On one point I do agree with Cheney: Today’s Democrats are
taking positions on the Iraq war similar to the views I held
toward the Vietnam War. But that is all to the good.
The war in Iraq has greatly increased the terrorist danger.
There was little or no terrorism, insurgency or civil war in
Iraq before Bush and Cheney took us into war there five years
ago. Now Iraq has become a breeding ground of terrorism, a
bloody insurgency against our troops and a civil war.
Beyond the deaths of more than 3,100 young Americans and an
estimated 600,000 Iraqis, we have spent nearly $500 billion on
the war, which has dragged on longer than World War II.
The Democrats are right. Let’s bring our troops home from this
hopeless war.
There is one more point about 1972 for Cheney’s consideration.
After winning 11 state primaries in a field of 16 contenders, I
won the Democratic presidential nomination. I then lost the
general election to President Nixon. Indeed, the entrenched
incumbent president, with a campaign budget 10 times the size of
mine, the power of the White House behind him and a highly
negative and unethical campaign, defeated me overwhelmingly. But
lest Cheney has forgotten, a few months after the election,
investigations by the Senate and an impeachment proceeding in
the House forced Nixon to become the only president in American
history to resign the presidency in disgrace.
Who was the real loser of ‘72?
THE VICE PRESIDENT spoke with contempt of my ‘72 campaign, but
he might do well to recall that I began that effort with these
words: “I make one pledge above all others - to seek and speak
the truth.” We made some costly tactical errors after winning
the nomination, but I never broke my pledge to speak the truth.
That is why I have never felt like a loser since 1972. In
contrast, Cheney and Bush have repeatedly lied to the American
people.
It is my firm belief that the Cheney-Bush team has committed
offenses that are worse than those that drove Nixon, Vice
President Spiro Agnew and Atty. Gen. John Mitchell from office
after 1972. Indeed, as their repeated violations of the
Constitution and federal statutes, as well as their repudiation
of international law, come under increased consideration, I
expect to see Cheney and Bush forced to resign their offices
before 2008 is over.
Aside from a growing list of impeachable offenses, the vice
president has demonstrated his ignorance of foreign policy by
attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for visiting Syria.
Apparently he thinks it is wrong to visit important Middle East
states that sometimes disagree with us. Isn’t it generally
agreed that Nixon’s greatest achievement was talking to the
Chinese Communist leaders, which opened the door to that nation?
And wasn’t President Reagan’s greatest achievement talking with
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev until the two men worked out an
end to the Cold War? Does Cheney believe that it’s better to go
to war rather than talk with countries with which we have
differences?
We, of course, already know that when Cheney endorses a war, he
exempts himself from participation. On second thought, maybe
it’s wise to keep Cheney off the battlefield - he might end up
shooting his comrades rather than the enemy.
On a more serious note, instead of listening to the foolishness
of the neoconservative ideologues, the Cheney-Bush team might
better heed the words of a real conservative, Edmund Burke: “A
conscientious man would be cautious how he dealt in blood.”
George S. McGovern is a former U.S. senator from South Dakota,
was the Democratic nominee for president in 1972.
© 2007 The Los Angeles Times
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