Scheer: If Only Kerry Were From the Bronx

[BeyondGeography]

COLUMN LEFT by Robert Scheer
The Nation

I wish that John Kerry had grown up in my old neighborhood in the Bronx. It drives me crazy that he doesn't have the street smarts to call those GOP bums out.

He's got to be outraged. Not only have his combat-shy opponents stood idly by as their surrogates trashed his Vietnam War record, Vice President Dick Cheney, stooping to a despicable low, said a vote for Kerry was tantamount to a vote for Osama bin Laden and terrorism.

Yes, Kerry is rightly pointing out in his stump speech that the war in Iraq is a deadly distraction from the very real fight to prevent Al Qaeda and likeminded groups from committing more atrocities. But it seems the veteran senator is too much of a gentleman to point out the elephant in the room, the obvious flaw in the Republican Party's claim that it is the only party that knows how to keep us safe: After all, it was Cheney and George W. Bush who were on watch when nineteen poorly trained hijackers were easily able to breach the nation's security apparatus and commit mass murder despite frantic, prescient warnings from the CIA. Yet, not only has this Administration not held anybody accountable for this mind-boggling dereliction of duty, it shamelessly milks the tragedy for political gain.

<snip>Kerry should just say, "What a load, you're the guys who blew it before 9/11!" Kerry needs to point out that it is Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and our nominal President who have screwed up Afghanistan, Iraq, the economy and the war on terror. That they are the ones who gave us Abu Ghraib but not bin Laden; 1,000 American dead but no peace in Iraq; fiery speeches at the Republican convention in New York but no on-the-record testimony to the 9/11 commission.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040927&s=scheer

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