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August 23, 2007
Military Service, GOP Style Governor Romney’s “Macaca” Moment By Jack D. McNamara The 2008 Presidential campaign is on what appears to be full throttle. Debates confront us nearly weekly, and the debates among more than a dozen candidates of both parties are then played back several times and worse yet, discussed and dissected interminably by the journalists and pundits whose profession it is to follow such things. Those of us who are average citizens who will vote 16 months from now watch and listen desultorily for something which interests us. Especially for independents, it is a wide and disconcerting choice. We will confess at the outset for ourselves, that we have not read a single candidate’s position paper on national health care, international investment of capital gains, or the revision of Social Security. Sixteen months is time enough for that. Instead we are alert to the odd fact, the startling opinion, the unexpected expression which might be (and usually is) a mistake but nevertheless tells us something about a candidate in a sort of flash of insight. Such a moment occurred in Iowa in the first week of August. One of the leading Republicans, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, was taking questions at a public forum, “Ask Mitt.” Referring to Romney’s family photos issued for the campaign, a woman in the audience asked if any of Romney’s five sons are serving in the military and if not, when do they plan to enlist? In a major sense, the question seems appropriate for a candidate whose support for the George Bush Administration’s war in Iraq is complete and undeviating. Romney had the opportunity to answer the question several ways over the following weeks. He said we have a “volunteer army” and he said it to a man holding a photo of his son in uniform at the Iowa State Fair. Governor Romney also said that “one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me to get elected.” Other Republican candidates have drawn comparisons — U.S. Representative Duncan Hunter has a son serving in Iraq. U.S. Senator John McCain’s son Jimmy is a Marine deployed to Iraq and another son is at the Naval Academy. For us, this is Governor Romney’s “macaca moment.” We refer to course to former Virginia Republican Senator George Allen’s taunt of a dark complected Senator James Webb campaign worker in the 2006 elections. The Veep Puts Foot in Mouth, Again Out of the bowels of the C-Span archives comes a videotape of Richard Cheney from April 15, 1994. At the time the current veep was the former Secretary of Defense for the U.S. during the first Iraqi war in 1991. Democrats were in office so Cheney was ensconced at the American Enterprise Institute. The interview was done by C-Span for a program “The Life and Career of Dick Cheney.” Asked why the coalition which defeated Saddam Hussein in 1991 did not go on to Baghdad Cheney said, “How many dead Americans is Saddam worth? … It’s a quagmire if we take over Iraq …” And of course we didn’t occupy Iraq. We established a flyover quarantine and sent in weapons inspectors to disarm Saddam of his nuclear, biological and chemical capability. They succeeded. Now Vice President Cheney’s spokespersons say that things changed between 1994 and 2007, namely the events of September 11, 2001 which required us to knock off Saddam Hussein. But, Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11. Nothing changed except Mr. Cheney became vice president. The video is on “You Tube” (www.youtube.com) The Great War on Drugs (GWOD) Suddenly over the past couple of weeks there is a flurry of Drug War stories. Nothing has suddenly changed, naturally, except that we are gearing up for a presidential election in which we will certainly have a new President — new jobs, new programs, promotions, money! So in rapid succession we get headlines like “American intervention suddenly looking better” (San Antonio Express News online 8/19). More exciting, the idea of several billion dollars in anti-drug money to be provided directly to Mexico is making the rounds in Washington — “U.S. Anti-Drug Aid Would Target Mexican Cartels,” Washington Post online 8/8/01. U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar of Laredo confirms the project. Well, why not? We have done so well in Iraq we might as well be considering a “preemptive” option for Mexico — occupy Nuevo Laredo. Our declared Drug War down there is now almost 40 years old and the price of drugs is actually declining. Afghanistan, which we now occupy and where we are at war, now supplies more than 95% of the world’s heroin. Go figure. • (Also published by the Big Bend Sentinel of Marfa, Texas August 23-07.)
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