Editorial: America Love it or leave it?

Friday, Sept. 24, 2004 | 4:17 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

September 25 - 26, 2004

Earlier this month Vice President Dick Cheney claimed that "the danger is that we'll be hit again" by a "devastating" terrorist attack if Democrat John Kerry is elected president. We thought the Bush-Cheney team had sunk about as low as it could get -- implying that a Democrat would somehow be less committed to defending this nation from an attack than a Republican -- but, boy, were we wrong.

Last week the Republican presidential ticket was at it again, attacking Kerry for criticizing statements made by President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who was in Washington to address Congress. Kerry said the two were misleading the public by offering a rosy assessment of the situation in Iraq when actually it is deteriorating. "John Kerry is trying to tear down all the good that has been accomplished, and his words are destructive to our effort in Iraq and in the global war on terror," the vice president said. "As Prime Minister Allawi said in his speech, and I quote, 'When political leaders sound the siren of defeatism in the face of terrorism, it only encourages more violence.' " Bush also said that Kerry's criticism "can embolden an enemy."

So let's get this straight. Simply pointing out the truth is somehow aiding the enemy? Are Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana (the eminently respected chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee), Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska (a Vietnam combat veteran) and Sen. John McCain of Arizona (a Vietnam prisoner of war for five years) -- all Republicans who have criticized the president's Iraq war -- also emboldening the enemy? Hagel has gone as far as to say that we're "in deep trouble in Iraq" and that we aren't winning the war there. It is interesting, to say the least, that many of those most critical of our failure to bring stability and basic services to Iraqis have been those men who have actually fought in a war (principally Kerry, Hagel and McCain) while Bush and Cheney (who avoided going to Vietnam) are the ones offering the Pollyanna-ish view of Iraq.

The public is starting to see through the Bush-Cheney ticket's scare tactics, misleading statements and lies regarding Iraq. This growing realization could even result in an Election Day backlash against these White House tactics. The term "credibility gap" was coined during the Vietnam War, but nearly four decades later, sad to say, it's back with us. We suspect that the Bush White House hasn't learned one of the critical lessons of Vietnam -- the importance of telling the American public the truth no matter how much it might hurt politically.