Cheney's Grim Vision: Decades of War

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 19:58:37 -0800
From: Severo Ornstein <severo () poonhill com>

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/01/15/MNGK14AC301.DTL

Vice president says Bush policy aimed at long-term world threat

     By James Sterngold
    The San Francisco Chronicle
    Thursday 15 January 2004

Los Angeles -- In a forceful preview of the Bush administration's 
expansionist military policies in this election year, Vice President Dick 
Cheney Wednesday painted a grim picture of what he said was the growing 
threat of a catastrophic terrorist attack in the United States and warned 
that the battle, like the Cold War, could last generations.

     The vice president's tone, in a major address to the Los Angeles 
World Affairs Council, was sobering, unlike many other comments recently by 
senior administration officials that have stressed successes in the war on 
terrorism.

     Cheney mentioned only in passing the administration's domestic 
policies, while saying President Bush would present a blueprint of his 
domestic goals in next Tuesday's State of the Union speech.

     Cheney devoted the half-hour speech to a frightening characterization 
of the war on terrorism and the new kind of mobilization he said it 
demanded. He sounded the alarm about the increasing prospects of a major 
new terrorist attack and the extraordinary responses that are required. 
While many of his remarks echoed past comments by the president and senior 
officials, Cheney struck a surprisingly dour note and suggested only an 
administration of proven ability could manage the dramatic overhaul 
necessary for the nation's security apparatus.

     "One of the legacies of this administration will be some of the most 
sweeping changes in our military, and our national security strategy as it 
relates to the military and force structure, and how we're based, and how 
we used it in the last 50 or 60 years, probably since World War II," Cheney 
said. "I think the changes are that dramatic."

     He also said the administration was planning to expand the military 
into even more overseas bases so the United States could wage war quickly 
around the globe.

     "Scattered in more than 50 nations, the al Qaeda network and other 
terrorist groups constitute an enemy unlike any other that we have ever 
faced," he said. "And as our intelligence shows, the terrorists continue 
plotting to kill on an ever-larger scale, including here in the United States."

     Cheney provided no details, however, of the kinds of attacks he expected.

     Although the administration has been criticized by some, including 
most of the Democratic candidates for president, for not doing enough to 
eliminate known programs for developing weapons of mass destruction in such 
countries as North Korea, Cheney said they were a priority and confronted 
the United States with its gravest threat.

     Again, he presented the risks of a terrorist attack involving these 
weapons in stark terms.

     "Instead of losing thousands of lives, we might lose tens or even 
hundreds of thousands of lives as the result of a single attack, or a set 
coordinated of attacks," Cheney said.

     While polls show that many Americans support the president's 
aggressive war on terrorism, he also has many critics for the way the 
battle has been waged. The president initially justified the war in Iraq by 
saying that Saddam Hussein had active programs to develop chemical, 
biological and nuclear weapons. The United States has yet to find evidence 
of such programs since overthrowing Hussein and installing a military 
occupation, prompting questions about the president's agenda and the 
quality of intelligence he is receiving.

     In addition, an expert at the U.S. Army War College, Jeffrey Record, 
recently released a 62-page analysis that concluded the war in Iraq might 
have set back American efforts to stop terrorists by diverting precious 
resources to a battle that will do little to prevent new attacks.

     As a result, Record concluded, the war on terrorism "lacks strategic 
clarity, embraces unrealistic objectives and may not be sustainable over 
the long haul."

     But in his speech Wednesday, Cheney compared this moment to the 
challenges faced by President Harry Truman at the beginning of the Cold 
War, when there was a hot war flaring on the Korean Peninsula and a 
long-term nuclear standoff developing with the Soviet Union.

     Cheney said Bush was establishing, as Truman had, a new structure for 
a new long-term war and spreading the military into new areas of the globe. 
"On Sept. 11, 2001, our nation made a fundamental commitment that will take 
many years to see through," Cheney said.
--
Severo M. Ornstein
Poon Hill
2200 Bear Gulch Road
Woodside, CA 94062
Tel: 650-851-4258
Fax: 650-851-9549

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