Just 27 Weeks Left: The Costs of an Election Year
By Mark Grueter
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It is not too much to say that President Bush and his followers will do whatever it takes to try to win this election. Between Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror, the Administration has invested far too much at this point to just acquiesce to John Kerry and the Democrats, whom they clearly hate.
For this campaign, in Bush’s mind, the ends will justify the means. In Bush’s diminutive mind, the grandiose projects that he began can only come to fruition if he is re-elected and can see them through. Such “dirty tricks” as breaking into hotel rooms now seem like provincial antics out of some light comedy compared to what will happen this year. Even the White House’s favorite reporter, Bob Woodward, who has more access to insiders than any other journalist, suggests a sinister plot. Woodward believes the Bush team has struck a deal with their man from Saudi Arabia, Prince Bandar; the Saudis have agreed to increase oil production right before the election and thus significantly lower gas prices so that votes will rally round the status quo at the last moment. What will the Saudis get in exchange? What they’ve always gotten. A hypocritical U.S. government that will leave them alone and allow them to continue indoctrinating their youth with the very sentiments that encourage terrorism.
Many of us believe the White House is out of control. Bush and Cheney are surrounded by yes-men and women and a sort of delusional, paranoid grandeur has taken hold. They strong-armed the CIA into manufacturing “intelligence” that would rationalize an invasion of Iraq. Now, with 709 Americans dead in that war, they’ve barred journalists from the Dover, Delaware Air Force Base where the coffins are being flown during the middle of the night (so that detection is kept at an absolute minimum). Two military contractors were just recently fired for being “caught” taking pictures of the caskets, which were wrapped in American flags.
The military operation in Iraq is in desperate need of more troops and more money, but as of yet, nothing is being offered. Recently, 20,000 troops have been asked to stay an additional three months; the $87 billion that was appropriated last fall is running out, with roughly $5 billion being hemorrhaged each month. Even many Republicans, such as John McCain, are demanding that Rumsfeld commit more forces in the region. As a matter of fact, the editor of the ever-influential, neo-conservative sheet The Weekly Standard, William Kristol, said that McCain should replace Rumsfeld if The Donald refuses to send more help.
The Bush Administration is not a big fan of the truth. For starters, the truth can be bad politics. If they ask Congress for more troops and more money, will the American people not get a bit piqued and take it out on their President? Instead of asking for additional funds, Bush will instead “re-appropriate” funds just as he did to launch the war. Back then, he withdrew resources from Afghanistan and channeled them into Iraq. Who knows what tricks he has up his sleeve this time? The point is that the administration won’t ask for more money and troops because it would look bad to do so. It’s insisted all along that this war could be conducted ‘on the cheap’ because of all the great technology we have and because the Iraqis would be very friendly to us. At least through the election, the Administration must pretend that things are going according to plan. In short, these are frightening times.
We can be fairly certain that Bush’s election year strategy will kill extra soldiers, on top of those who would have been killed regardless. But remember that the ends justify the means. Bush’s re-election will ultimately save more lives in the long run. Don’t you know that? He knows it because the Christian sky-god told him so. It doesn’t matter that soldiers and their families are being lied to, because it’s all in the name of freedom and protecting American values.
Bush recently answered those who questioned his commitment to Iraq. He said he would do whatever we have to do to stabilize the country and let freedom ring. So, Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican veteran on the armed services committee, calls his bluff. He cogently argues that if the U.S. really intends to see this thing through it must seriously consider reinstituting the draft. For Hagel, it’s the only feasible long-term solution to the problem of a shortage of troops and resources.
The first problem that jumps out about a potential draft is that we’re dealing with a an increasingly unpopular war. I would dodge the draft simply because I don’t trust the Bush people to conduct matters sanely or fairly. And most young Americans are even more rebellious and individualistic now than they were forty years ago during Vietnam.
Moreover, conscription can only be justified morally, in the name of wars being fought out of necessity, not out of choice. World War II was probably fought out of necessity and so conscription was potentially justified. On the contrary, the Vietnam War, we now know more than ever, was fought out of choice and therefore the draft should not have been instituted, on neither moral nor intellectual grounds. Now that we know Iraq was not a real threat, there’s no possible way our government can rationalize conscription. Not anymore. Not with what we’ve learned.
Bush has never been very fond of leveling with the American people about the realities of the wars he has initiated. Now that we’re in an election year, we should all prepare for the worst.
Click here for Grueter's previous column.
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Mark Grueter is a writer living in New York City. He may be contacted at [email protected].
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2004 Me Three