Shot Gun Approach

In his Post column “Quell Quailgate” dated February 17, 2006 Charles Krauthammer writes, “Something happened involving the vice president that was interesting and unusual but of no great significance beyond that.” I wish the rest of us could be as sanguine about this infamous shooting incident. Mr. Krauthammer concludes wistfully that “Cheney got a judgment call wrong” and that’s all there was to it.

However, Mr. Krauthammer must recall that this is the same vice president, who assured us three days prior to the start of the war that “we will be greeted as liberators” in Iraq. Over two years later, despite a still-raging insurgency in Iraq, Vice President Cheney famously declared it was “in the last throes”. One wonders how many more such Cheney judgment calls it will take, before other conservatives “get religion” as Peggy Noonan did a couple of days ago. Ms Noonan concluded in her Wall Street Journal op-ed column that

“Mr. Bush may feel in time that he has reason to want to put in a new vice president”.

Meanwhile on the liberal side of town Eugene Robinson erred only slightly, when he wrote in his Post column on Tuesday that “out-of-control is the way this whole administration operates: Ready, fire, aim.” I believe that it’s actually been more like: Fire, aim, not ready! We can’t forget that the Bush Administration took a shot gun approach into Iraq as well – in the misguided belief that their “shock and awe” strategy did not require a need to “aim”. Three years later, the Bush Administration has discovered that the American public is “not ready” for what they are now calling a “long war” in Iraq.

In fact, this friendly fire, shot gun approach has proven to be a metaphor for the Bush Administration’s handling of major domestic crises as well. Senior citizens have been peppered by a confusing array of options with the Administration’s new prescription drug plan – it’s apparent now that no one was ready for it. The hodge-podge of the Administration’s post-Katrina efforts included cash payments, hotel stays, extensions, evictions, vacant trailer lots, etc. – yet, almost six months later, New Orleans is still a mess and the new hurricane season is barely four months away.

Finally, a word about the vice president’s judgment in selecting Fox News to tell his side of the shooting story – Mr. Cheney was responsible for sending our soldiers into a war where they were hardly greeted as liberators, Mr. Cheney even shot a dear friend in the face, yet Mr. Cheney lacks the chutzpah to host a more open national press conference? With their record of warrantless surveillance, a Pravda-like reliance on Fox News, and a never-ending “war on terror” deteriorating into a modern day crusade – I am tempted to conclude with a Woodwardian warning “be afraid, be very afraid”. But instead, I can only hope that this “friendly fire” incident is a wake-up call to the larger American public. We can no longer be duped by this Administration’s trump card – crying wolf on "national security" whenever it’s convenient to mask its larger failings – that shot gun approach is only for the birds!