The Shameful Politicizing of the bin Laden Tape by the Bush Campaign
By Anthony Wade
October 30, 2004
The Bush Administration is scrambling in the wake of the new bin Laden videotape about how to use it for their political advantage. The substance of the videotape is quite damning to the notion Bush likes to sell that he has been our great protector. He has constantly reminded us that we need to live in fear and that it is his leadership that we should rely on in such troubling times. Then along came Osama to remind us all again of the miserable failure that is George W. Bush's War on Terror.
I have said in another article that the motivation for the tape release at 4PM on a Friday before an election seemed politically motivated to help Bush. The logic there is that any discussion of terror for the last four days, an issue Bush still vastly outpolls Kerry on, can only be viewed positively by the Bush camp, even if some of the coverage is critical. That is what we must not allow to happen as a result of this October surprise. We must not allow Bush to manipulate us or the press into a political advantage for himself at the expense of the truth. We see that they are already trying to start this strategy.
John Kerry continued tonight to discuss all pertinent issues related to the election this coming Tuesday. He has consistently talked about real solutions to jobs and healthcare. He also has continued to talk about the utter mismanagement of the war on terror, by our current president. He said tonight, what he has said all along, that George Bush took his eye off the ball in going after Saddam, who turned out to not be a threat, while allowing bin Laden to escape. Kerry continued to remind us that after he allowed bin Laden to escape, he basically ignored him for the past three years. Essentially, the new bin Laden tape confirms what John Kerry has said all along and thus, there was no need for Kerry change tactics as a result of it's release.
George Bush on the other hand has tried to parlay this new tape into a halt on the attacks on his record. Both Bush and his communications director, Dan Bartlett are now on record as calling Kerry's attacks about Bush's record on bin Laden, "shameful". Bush has already accused John Kerry of politicizing the new tape. Unfortunately for the president, the facts do not support this notion. If Kerry had never been critical of the job Bush had done with bin Laden, then I would agree that it is politicizing the issue. However, John Kerry has been talking about this for months now. Do we all remember the debates? John Kerry accused the president then of taking his eye off the ball in regard to bin Laden. What was the president's response? He clearly stated that bin Laden was not the central focus of the war on terror and essentially accused Kerry of being myopic for stating so. So what do you think now George?
The tape came out Friday and only one person expects something to change as a result of it, George Bush. He expects Kerry to stop telling the truth about the horrible Bush record on terrorism and bin Laden specifically. He wants to use the tape politically to try and rally people to his side by calling Kerry "shameful" for simply saying what he has been saying for months now. No George, that is not shameful.
What is shameful is ordering our troops to guard the Ministry of Oil, while nearly 400 tons of dangerous explosives were being looted from Iraq . These are the same type of explosives that blew a hole in the USS Cole. What is shameful is trying to cover that up by comparing it to 400,000 other munitions that were discovered by our troops and properly secured. That is shameful because it is comparing apples and oranges. The 400,000 Bush keeps referring to are standard munitions, including things like regular ammo, not high powered explosives. That is shameful. What is shameful is sending out your emissaries of disinformation to try and spin yourself away from this story. For those of you who are not aware, because mainstream media barely covered it, there is now video proof that those explosives were indeed at Al Qaqaa after we invaded. Our troops were videotaped opening the caches of explosives. What is further shameful is having Bush stumpers such as Guliani then blame the troops, as a way to try and protect the president. What is shameful is accusing someone of behaving shamefully when all they are doing is telling the truth, as they have been for months.
George W. Bush's record on terrorism has indeed been shameful. His war in Afghanistan has led to a reinvigoration of the opium crop from that country and today, the Taliban still controls portions of the country. Our brave troops had bin Laden cornered at Tora Bora and Bush outsourced the job of finishing him off to the same Afghan warlords who we had been fighting against, just weeks prior. Instead of pursuing this man, who killed 3,000 of our citizens in the most horrific attack on our soil in the history of the United States of America , George Bush instead invaded a country that had no links to terror. We deposed Saddam Hussein only to find out that he had none of the lethal weaponry Bush had boasted he had. As a result, there is now near civil war, 1,100 of our valiant soldiers have died and over 5,000 more are maimed. There are also over 20,000 Iraqi civilian deaths as a result of his war in Iraq , which has led to a strengthening of al Qaeda and the hatred toward this country by radical fundamentalists. While there was no terrorist activity in Iraq before Bush's War, there is now because of it. Meanwhile, public enemy number one, bin Laden was still out there, laughing at us. During this time when asked about him Bush said the following:
"I don't know where he is. Nor -- you know, I just don't spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you". - 2001
This was said just six months after bin Laden allegedly orchestrated the deaths of 3,000 Americans. When 9-11 first happened Bush was all about tough talk. Bin Laden was wanted dead or alive and we were gonna smoke em out. Then six months later, he became an afterthought and he faded into the mystique of the entire 9-11 tragedy as Bush pursued his real agenda, the Iraqi oil fields. During the Presidential debates John Kerry pointed this out and Bush responded by saying:
"To say that there's only one focus on the war on terror doesn't really understand the nature of the war on terror." - 2004
After three years Bush had not changed his mind. Bin Laden was not a focus of his concentrated efforts on terrorism. This is the Bush record on terrorism. This is what he is running on. This is what he is using to try and convince you to vote for him. He is good at talking tough, but at the end of the day, this is all he has. He promised us bin Laden, cornered him, let him get away, invaded Iraq , brought terrorism to that country, while allowing bin Laden to apparently get his second wind.
On September the 11th, a man named Osama bin Laden orchestrated the mass murder of 3,000 of our people. We were promised justice and instead we got Iraq . We were promised justice and instead we were told that bin Laden was not thought of much anymore and he was not a focus. We were promised justice and now, three years later bin Laden has come home to roost to remind us all of how little this president has done to protect us. What is most arrogant though is that George Bush looks us in the eye and runs on this record. He politicizes one of his worst failures to try and have John Kerry stop telling us the truth. He feigns indignation at the mere thought of someone correctly pointing out that this tape proves one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt. That George W. Bush's record on terrorism has been shameful.
Anthony Wade is co-administrator of a website devoted to educating the populace to the ongoing lies of President George W. Bush and seeking his removal from office. He is a 37-year-old independent writer from New York with political commentary articles seen on multiple websites. A Christian progressive and professional Rehabilitation Counselor working with the poor and disabled, Mr. Wade believes that you can have faith and hold elected officials accountable for lies and excess.
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