OPINION & EDITORIAL
Cheney to America: Let’s go bird hunting
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Also by Jason Smathers:
- Your Christmas gift: Lighten up! (December 13, 2007)
- America in dire need of education on gender identity (December 7, 2007)
- Getting off or going down: Is porn destructive? (December 5, 2007)
- Catholic group deserves funding, at least for now (November 28, 2007)
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- Despite stunt, Republicans will need to answer in 2006 (November 21, 2005)
- There may be no winners, but Kerry came out on top of Bush (October 4, 2004)
- Political discourse lacking respect (March 1, 2007)
- Adult diapers for Democrats only (October 31, 2006)
by Jason Smathers
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Following the Congressional power switch, many questions have presented themselves. Yet, we won't get the answers we need from a Democratic Congress, anti-war protesters or even the Republican minority. You'll only find a way to the answers through an interview with one man: Dick Cheney.
Following President Bush's pledge to win the Iraq War with a "new way forward," CNN's Wolf Blitzer interviewed Cheney to ask him about the new strategy. What was astounding was that Mr. Cheney didn't dodge the questions but declared most of them meaningless. When confronted with questions about the reason why we started the Iraq War, Cheney remarked, "That's history." He dismissed questions about Syria and Iran as "what if's" and insisted on focusing on the "situation on the ground." When Blitzer asked him about the blunders of the war, Cheney completely rejected the question as "hogwash."
While politicians dance around hard questions all the time, Cheney's sheer determination to accept an interview and entirely reject broader questions as unanswerable represents a stagnant atmosphere in an administration trying to find a "new way forward."
Cheney has often been accused of standing somewhat separate from the official administration positions. He takes the more aggressive approach against opponents when Bush is politically vulnerable. His comments are out of touch with the reality of the war. Contrary to his opinion, the last throes of the insurgency are nowhere in sight and success seems more and more unlikely. Cheney had no answer for the questions he was asked because he believed they did not warrant asking. His flaw is that he wants to succeed without asking what that success looks like.
Cheney's misjudgment mirrors America's critical mistake. The majority of the country needs to ask better questions. Right now, we're stuck on the same one.
In 2004, the party lines were very closely tied with the position on Iraq. Democrats disagreed with the war and sought (with a few exceptions) to change strategy. The Republicans, along with Mr. Bush at the time, were determined to "stay the course" and find victory in Iraq.
Two years later, power shifted on the premise of a new direction. Now, the question of how to change has prompted Republicans and Democrats alike to offer limited answers. Hilary Clinton has advocated "phased redeployment" of U.S. forces from Iraq, but has not recanted on her decision to vote for the war. Barack Obama was never subjected to a vote for the war, but also advocates phased redeployment. Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain favors President Bush's troop surge while Sen. Chuck Hagel has come out flatly against it.
In the midst of this, a slew of other candidates offer varying views while the American people make their opinion known in polls across the country. They don't want troop surges — they want change and they want to win.
Yet, like Cheney, the American public is missing the bigger picture. While the big question may change from how to "succeed" in Iraq to how to leave Iraq, it's still an empty question. Answering that question in any conclusive way prompts a myriad of new questions that haven't been considered yet. These questions include how we handle Iran, North Korea and Syria, but they still miss the point.
A better question is, "Where is this all leading us?" Americans have responded both positively and negatively, but only Dick Cheney truly represents the identity crisis that America has reached by refusing to acknowledge the question. He has refused because he knows that question entails far more than troop surges and phased redeployment. That question ultimately leads to another one we have been reluctant to answer with any confidence since the Vietnam War: "Who are we?"
The major crisis we find ourselves in today isn't that we're losing a war or that we have lost our way, it's that we never chose which path to take. Since the Spanish-American War, America has straddled two paths: freedom and prosperity. While these two qualities have been essential to our identity, they're beginning to conflict with each other.
Every war we've fought has stretched that relationship. We study World War I and World War II in a way that suggests we were there to liberate Europe, but our own economic concerns hung in the balance as well. The battles and proxy wars of the Cold War resulted in a battle for both those qualities of American life, but ended up challenging both. Now, with our current nation-building campaign jeopardizing both our conceptions of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we must decide which we cherish more — our republic or our empire. If we don't, we may end up with neither.
Yet, we cannot answer until we ask the question. Therefore, Americans should watch the line of questions presented to Cheney, Clinton, Obama and anyone else who wishes to lead us forward. That's because we will soon be forced to answer much tougher ones ourselves.
Jason Smathers (jsmathers@wisc.edu) is a junior majoring in history and journalism.
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