Thought Theater

Cheney Rolls Out The Terror Wagon genre: Just Jihad & Polispeak & Six Degrees of Speculation

If one wants to understand the mindset of the Bush strategy, one need only watch Dick Cheney. Time and again, Cheney has been called upon to articulate the message upon which the President and his Party intend to campaign. Today was no different as the Vice President delivered the GOP talking points to those attending a Veterans of Foreign War convention in Nevada. Reuters has the full article here.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday seized on Democratic calls to pull troops out of Iraq to draw an election-year link between early withdrawal and the possibility of terrorist attacks in the United States.

As Cheney and President George W. Bush try to help Republicans keep control of the U.S. Congress on November 7, polls show public support for the war ebbing away. But Bush gets better marks for his handling of terrorism and Cheney tied the two together.

"Some in our own country claim retreat from Iraq would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone," Cheney told a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno, Nevada. "A precipitous withdrawal from Iraq would be ... a ruinous blow to the future security of the United States."

Thought Theater has previously discussed the GOP strategy to use the fear of terrorism to offset American displeasure with the war in Iraq. Cheney's remarks are a clear attempt to raise enough doubt within voters to hesitate to vote for a Party that wants to withdraw from Iraq...an effort to paint the Democrats as weak on security. In simple terms, the Republican goal is to shift voter focus to security and terror in order to overcome dissatisfaction with Iraq.

Cheney said terrorists wanted to arm themselves with chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons, "to destroy Israel, to intimidate all Western countries and to cause mass death in the United States."

He suggested critics were naive and did not understand the magnitude of the threats.

"Some might look at these ambitions and wave them off as extreme and mad," he said. "Well, these ambitions are extreme and they are mad. They are also real and we must not wave them off, we must take them seriously."

Cheney said he welcomed the vigorous debate over Iraq but added: "There is a difference between healthy debate and self-defeating pessimism. "We have only two options on Iraq - victory or defeat - and this nation will not pursue a policy of retreat."

I expect Cheney and other Republican operatives to become increasingly pointed as November approaches. Delivering doubt proximate to points of decision (Election Day) tends to have the maximum impact. Doubt frequently makes people hesitant to enact changes...especially if the doubt can be infused with a fear of terrorism...which is equated with a threat to personal safety and security. Cheney's demeanor is ideal for delivering these types of messages. Despite being unpopular, his frequent assertion that he has no political motivation (since he doesn't intend to seek the presidency) gives his words some added credibility with voters who are concerned about terrorism.

Comments

1 On May 4, 2008 at 11:44 AM, Tim Adams wrote —

This is a lot of information that NOW seems FALSE!

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