F
Cheney and the war
5/9/2008 | Today's Georgetown Times Online Edition
Published on 3/25/2008
Martha Raddatz, a reporter for ABC, said to U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney: "Two-thirds of Americans say it's (the Iraq war) not worth fighting, and they're looking at the value gain versus the cost in American lives, certainly, and Iraqi lives."
Mr. Cheney's response: "So?"
The vice president can afford to thumb his nose at American public opinion. He doesn't need us any more. It's a troubling sign when Mr. Cheney can give a cavalier answer about Iraq just as casualties pass 4,000.
The vice president believes the war in Iraq will prove to be justified. He says casualties are expected and thinks President George W. Bush has borne the "biggest burden" of the war.
"He's the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, the all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm's way for the rest of us,"
His emphasis on the word "volunteer" was not totally clear but could imply that the men and women in uniform knew what they were getting into when they joined the military.
But Mr. Cheney won't have to answer any questions about what he really meant. The bulk of his public appearances come in Republican-friendly forums: Conservative talk radio shows, the Heritage Foundation, a think tank in Washington that leans right, or military installations like Balad Air Base in Iraq last Tuesday, where troops greeted him with cheers of "USA! USA!"
That feeds the vice president's ego, allowing him the leverage to show his disregard for public opinion.
"If I wanted to be loved, I ought to be a TV correspondent, not a politician," he joked during a television interview in Turkey, his last stop on a 10-day trip throughout the Mideast.
Politics aside, Americans cannot and should not ignore the cost of this war.
The 4,000 killed were disproportionately young -- more than half under age 25, three-fourths no more than 30. Nearly three dozen were just 18. Eighty-three were older than 45. Most were active duty personnel, but 10 percent were National Guard members, and 6 percent were in the Reserves.
Most of those who died -- 56 percent -- were killed by improvised explosive devices, the infamous IEDs. It was a roadside bomb that killed the four U.S. soldiers Sunday.
More than 29,000 soldiers have been wounded, 45 percent of them so seriously they haven't returned to duty. And in Afghanistan, the other conflict started after the terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001, nearly 500 have died, including two soldiers on Sunday.
At least 100,000 Iraqis are estimated to have died since the conflict began, including 61 killed in a wave of attacks on Sunday.
President Bush sought out a vice president with no presidential aspirations. Mr. Cheney has re-defined the job and its power from behind the scenes. The next president would do well to select a man or woman who will remain accountable to the public as a possible future chief executive.
