Cheney on the Loose

Vice President Cheney is on the loose this week. He's been on an emergency visit to the few friendly countries we have left in Asia and the Middle East. Highlights have included his opinion freely offered that somehow our allies in Pakistan and will be endangered if we withdraw from Iraq,

"I've often spoken and would reiterate again today, when you think about the debate at home, some of my friends on the other side of the aisle arguing that we need to get out of Iraq, then you go spend some time with our allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, you can't help but be convinced that that would have a devastating impact, devastating consequences for what they're trying to do, what they've agreed to do in terms of their ongoing efforts with us as allies in these struggles in this part of the world."

Curiously, the reason we're in trouble in Pakistan with Al Qaeda and in Afghanistan with the Taliban is precisely that we are expending so much of our military capability in Iraq. Cheney himself admits that it's the lack of manpower that is the problem.

"One of the reasons I think Karzai was upbeat was because of the United States' economic and financial commitment. We've asked for significant sums for him this year in the budget, the commitment of an additional brigade of troops to beef up what's already there, that's all taken as a sign of our commitment, specifically to Afghanistan. They worry about that."

So let's see... The Taliban and Al Qaeda are resurgent and getting stronger because we went to Iraq and didn't finish the job in Afghanistan. Now we can't leave because that somehow endangers our allies and would embolden the enemy.

Another highlight came from Afghanistan. We've shown how strong we are and that we have "stomach for the fight" by "staying the course." The Taliban is so intimidated that.... they walked right up the air base where Vice-President Cheney was staying and blew up a guard station killing another American soldier! It gives new meaning to "fighting them over there, so we don't have to fight them here." Perhaps this was a "horse head in the bed" gift from the Pakistani's for Vice President Cheney. The statement they released after his visit is most telling.

"...no nation will dictate to us our foreign policy positions."

It's notable that all the public comments stopped after the bombing...

The fact is the Taliban and Al Quaida are now strong and dangerous again primarily because of our failed Iraq policy. Glen Greenwald explains it this way:

"Nothing has aided Al Qaeda more than our decision to all but forget about (or at least seriously neglect) Afghanistan in order to satisfy the personal Iraq project of the President and his neo-conservative comrades. That decision has helped Al Qaeda in so many ways, primarily by abandoning that region and allowing them to re-establish their sanctuary. One of the benefits of an Iraqi withdrawal would be that our military resources could be freed up to fight against actual Terrorists."

The most serious highlight of course was his accusations of treason against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"If we adopt the Pelosi policy, (to withdraw) then we will validate the strategy of al-Qaeda. I said it and I meant it."

He went on to say that the strategy of the Al Qaeda is to simply make America quit and that we have to show them how strong we are and that we have stomach for the fight.. As the trip proved, we have showed our strength to the point that terrorist attacks are now much more likely and have increased dramatically since our invasion.

Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, senior fellows at the New York University Center on Law and Security report:

"Globally there was a 607 percent rise in the average yearly incidence of attacks (28.3 attacks per year before and 199.8 after) and a 237 percent rise in the average fatality rate (from 501 to 1,689 deaths per year). A large part of this rise occurred in Iraq, which accounts for fully half of the global total of jihadist terrorist attacks in the post-Iraq War period. But even excluding Iraq, the average yearly number of jihadist terrorist attacks and resulting fatalities still rose sharply around the world by 265 percent and 58 percent respectively."

So now we have to show our strength so that the terrorists will know we have the "stomach" for the fight. Doing so increases the level of terrorism around the world. Leaving Iraq would show weakness, validating the strategy of Al Qaeda. Staying in Iraq shows the terrorists how "strong" we are, but weakens our ability to deal with them. And 'round and 'round we go....