Cheney Warns of Terror Risk if Kerry Wins

Vice-president Dick Cheney is resorting to scare tactics to try to win re-election. Yesterday he said "It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States." This is a pretty audacious statement from the VP. If we assume he considers himself and the president as the "right" choice, then he is warning that a Kerry victory will result in a major terrorist attack on the US. Though it does not logically follow, the implication of this statement is that a Bush victory will protect us from such an attack. Hmmm. Those are words destined to blow up in the second Bush administration's face, should another attack come.

Many will probably quote the statement above and comment on it. Less quoted will be the next sentence in which the VP warned about a relapse to the "pre-9/11 mind-set'' if Kerry were elected. Apparently, Cheney views this mindset as bad. Let's think about it. Let us consider the period from 1972, when the PLO hit the Munich Olympics in one of the earliest examples of Islamic terror hitting the larger world, through the end of Bill Clinton's presidency in January 2001. This 29 year period covers six presidents, four Republican and two Democrat. We can safely say the mentality espoused by all these administrations in fighting terrorism represents the "pre-9/11 mind-set." In this period, with this supposedly failed mentality, how many Islamic terrorist attacks were carried out on US soil? One, the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. One attack in 29 years. How can you call the approach taken during that period a failure?

There is a common mindset that says somehow the world was fundamentally changed on 9/11/2001 when the Trade Center fell. It hasn't. The world is fundamentally the same. What has changed is the American sense of security, which was lost on that terrible day. Were there mistakes and failures in the intelligence analysis in the months prior to 9/11? Obviously. But don't throw out the baby with the bath water. Learn from the mistakes. The system worked well. One terrorist attack fell through the cracks and got carried out. It happened to be a particularly spectacular attack, but it doesn't change the fact that many other attacks were disrupted and prevented.

The mindset Cheney disparages prevented many attacks on the United States. That which Cheney apparently prefers has caused a thousand American deaths in Iraq, created huge national debts, alienated many of our friends around the world, and has served to rally our enemy, but has done little if anything to improve our security. We have destroyed a regime that posed no threat to us, so no security was gained. We have disrupted high-level al Qaida operation by forcing its leaders to scramble into hiding and arresting others, but the organization continues to operate and carry out attacks. So we are not safer.

We have expended considerable energy, treasure, and blood in this so-called war on terror, but achieved little of substance. The "pre-9/11 mind-set" that Cheney so denigrates was considerably cheaper in terms of energy, treasure, and blood, and actually achieved something. Maybe a lapse back to the good-ole days is a good thing.