Opinion Editorials, October 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
Who is really running our American Foreign Policy, Ariel Sharon or Dick Cheney?
Edith Archer
Al-Jazeerah, 10/30/03
An analysis of the events that have created mayhem and chaos around the world, resulting in the massacre of tens of thousands (Iraq and Afghanistan), and the subsequent increase in terrorism (not the diminution of terror as proclaimed by the Bush Regime)-- it must be either Sharon and/or Cheney ... It sure "ain't" Bush ... a party-boy that they've got running-around the world "hat-in-hand" to raise money (apparently fund-raising is something Bush likes to do, and claims he's good at ... unlike leading this nation: something he's appallingly bad at ...).
Meanwhile, Rummy Rumsfeld's grim view on the so-called "War on Terror" (i.e. divert American taxpayer monies to the fat-cats & top-dogs ... Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle Group, etc.), squares with the disastrous and bloody fiasco in Iraq. In Iraq, the war-turned-guerrilla-quagmire is mired in unabated attacks [Source: "U.S. Reports Increase in Daily Attacks in Iraq" on http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html?ex=1067845610&ei=1&en=dbc4586e45aacd4d, US Commander, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez reports: "We've had an average number of engagements from 20 to 25 (daily). We've seen a spike up to 35 in last three weeks.''] Bush's Death Toll stands at 390 US (337) & British (53) soldiers, 17 journalists & 7757-9565 innocent Iraqi civilians ... as well as 1934 soldiers reported wounded, injured, or maimed along with thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians.
While the Bushies give Condi Rice the refurbished job of fabricating orwellian propaganda, in liaison with Veep Cheney & Karl Rove, to sell us all on the phony notion that all is rosy in Iraq and that the Iraqis are tickled-pink with the US Occupation, it appears that Rummy Rumsfeld doesn't share in their "Kumbaya" Song Fest & Happy Talk:
In "Defense Memo: A Grim Outlook" on http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1022-01.htm , Dave Moniz and Tom Squitieri, provide an assessment of the inconsistencies between the Bushies' neo-fascist propaganda and the horrific nightmarish reality on-the-ground ... (Also, read the copy of Rummy's infantile memorandum, akin to something written by a freshman taking Business Management 101 at the Open University-- and disappointing for a Senior Cabinet Secretary of Defense!):
"Among Rumsfeld's observations in the two-page memo:
• The United States is "just getting started" in fighting the Iraq-based terror group Ansar Al-Islam.
• The war is hugely expensive. "The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists' cost of millions."
• Postwar stabilization efforts are very difficult. "It is pretty clear the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog."
Apparently Rummy is trying to "keep a sense of urgency alive" ... Hmmm ... that's nice! How thoughtful of Rummy to maintain "a sense of urgency", with so many of our troops in harm's way, in order to enrich the Bush Regime's war-profiteers, corporate cronies & robber-barons. We certainly don't want too much blood-letting before the Bushies' campaign contributors have their "shot" at bilking, plundering and looting America and Iraq.
Bush seems oblivious to the disaster and bungled fiasco, of his own making (Bush prides himself on his own ignorance and refuses to read newspapers). It is obvious that Bush is in reality, a weak and petty man, pretending to lead, but in deep, deep waters-- way, way over-his-head. So Bush slams his fist on the table and shouts imperial-style (or hitlerian-style) at those posing questions and keeps Condi, his "Mother Hen", close at hand, where they can hold onto each other like life-preservers, to avoid drowning.
In "Cheney's grip tight on foreign policy reins" by Jim Lobe on http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/EJ23Aa01.html , the bizarre and dangerously stupid modus operandi of the corrupt Bush Regime is exposed:
"The image was not an edifying one: the president of the United States a horse, his vice president, the rider.
But that is the picture Senator Joseph Biden, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, used to describe the power relationship between US President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in a recent interview with the National Journal.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, according to Biden's account, sometimes talks Bush into pursuing a more conciliatory foreign policy line, as he has done with North Korea or the United Nations from time to time.
"Like with a horse, Powell is always able to lead Bush to the water. But just as he is about to put his head down, Cheney up in the saddle says, 'Un-uh', and yanks up the reins before Bush can drink the water. That's my image of how it goes," Biden said.
That is also the image which is gaining currency in power circles in Washington. When it comes to foreign policy, Cheney is increasingly seen as holding the reins.
While the mainstream media continue to refer to Bush as the captain of his own foreign policy ship, hints that Cheney - a Republican right-winger surrounded by neo-conservatives, many with close ties to Israel's Likud Party - is the dominant figure in Washington's diplomacy have become too plentiful to ignore.
The most stunning example was disclosed in a recent Washington Post article that assessed Condoleezza Rice's performance as national security adviser. The authors reported that Bush had ordered cabinet officials not to give any preferential treatment to Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC) as US forces moved into Iraq in the spring.
Imagine the shock felt by the State Department when, shortly after Bush gave the order, the Pentagon flew Chalabi and 600 of his armed followers into southern Iraq in early April "with the approval of the vice president".
Enforcing policy discipline, especially in a divided administration, is ordinarily the task of the national security adviser. But Rice, an academic whose substantive knowledge of foreign policy is largely confined to her expertise, the Soviet Union and Russia, has not been equal to the task.
Her failure in that regard, as well as Bush's own passivity and inexperience, is precisely what has enabled Cheney to dominate the policy process, particularly with respect to the Middle East, where Cheney's views are almost entirely consistent with those of the neo-cons close to Likud and Israeli premier Ariel Sharon.
Even before September 11, Cheney had endorsed Israel's selective assassination policy, even as the State Department was denouncing it. One year later, Cheney told Israel's defense minister, albeit privately, that he thought Palestinian President Yasser Arafat "should be hanged".
That Cheney should assume such a dominant role is not surprising given the degree to which Bush depended on him during his presidential campaign and in the administration's early days. And the fact that Cheney, who was asked by Bush to recommend his running mate in 2000, chose himself suggested that he felt confident that Bush would give him extraordinary powers if he won.
Similarly, Cheney played a much more important role than Rice, despite Rice's much closer personal relationship with Bush, in the appointment of both cabinet and sub-cabinet national security officials, beginning with Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon helm.
Not only did Cheney personally intervene to ensure that Powell's best friend, Richard Armitage, was denied the deputy defense secretary position, but he also played a key role in securing the post for Paul Wolfowitz.
Moreover, it was Cheney who insisted that ultra-unilateralist John Bolton be placed in a top State Department arms position, from which he has pursued policies that run counter to Powell's own preferences.
Cheney's own chief of staff and national security adviser, I Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a Washington lawyer and Wolfowitz protege, is considered a far more skilled and experienced bureaucratic and political operator than Rice.
Moreover, his own national security staff, the largest ever employed by a vice president, has largely been chosen for both their ideological affinity with their boss and proven Washington experience. "They play to win," said one State Department official.
With several of his political allies, including deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley and Middle East director Elliott Abrams, on Rice's larger but more diverse staff, Libby "is able to run circles around Condi", a former senior official told IPS earlier this year.
Thus, Cheney played a key role in assigning responsibility for post-war reconstruction to the Pentagon, a major departure from past experience when the State Department was given the lead.
Similarly, Cheney backed the Pentagon's exclusion of State Department officials, including Tom Warrick, a highly regarded Iraq specialist who oversaw the mammoth "Future of Iraq Project" that involved hundreds of Iraqi expatriates and other experts, in the post-war administration.
It was also Cheney and Libby whose frequent trips to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the runup to the Iraq war played the decisive role in distorting the intelligence process, in part by pressing on CIA analysts questionable evidence supplied by the INC and Pentagon hawks under Rumsfeld, according to retired intelligence officers.
More recently, it was Cheney who led the effort to deny Powell the authority to negotiate a new UN Security Council resolution that could have reduced the Pentagon's control over the political transition in Iraq, even after the president had initially approved such a deal.
Even now, according to some sources, Cheney is actively trying to blunt Congressional pressure to reduce the Pentagon's control over Iraq policy and fire several senior Pentagon hawks, beginning with Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, who are believed to have misled Congress about both the evidence used to justify the war and the post-war situation.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar and Biden, the committee's ranking Democrat, explicitly mentioned Cheney in what amounted to a bipartisan appeal on NBC's "Meet the Press" television program on October 12 for Bush to assert his control over foreign policy.
Biden said, "I would say, 'Mr President, take charge. Take charge - let your secretary of defense, state, and your vice president know this is my policy, any one of you that divert from the policy is off the team'."
Lugar, a staunch, albeit moderate Republican, said he agreed with Biden, adding, "The president has to be president. That means the president over the vice president and over these secretaries."
The past month's announcements that Rice had hired Robert Blackwill, Bush's former ambassador to India and reputedly a skilled bureaucratic and Republican infighter himself, as a top deputy and that she is heading up a new, inter-agency Iraq stabilization group appeared designed to create the appearance that she was at last taking the reins. So far, however, there is little evidence that Cheney is prepared to dismount."
 |
| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
 |