- At the Pentagon, on June 10, while business in Washington
had officially halted as the body of Ronald Reagan lay in state, defence
secretary Donald Rumsfeld convened an emergency meeting on the Abu Ghraib
scandal, according to a reliable source privy to its proceedings. Rumsfeld
began the extraordinary session by saying that certain documents needed
to "get out" that would show that there was no policy approving
of torture and that what had happened in Iraq and Afghanistan was aberrant.
-
- The Senate armed services committee had been conducting
hearings whose corrosive impact needed to be countered. Rumsfeld complained
about "serial requests" for information from Congress. Yet he
was even more upset by subpoenas of defence officials issued by the special
prosecutor in the case of Valerie Plame. The Pentagon, Rumsfeld said, was
nearly "at a stop" because of them. Rumsfeld admitted he was
startled by the uproar over Abu Ghraib: "There are so many international
organisations."
-
- On June 22, the White House released documents on policy
on torture, including a directive signed on February 7 2002 by Bush stating
that he has "the authority under the constitution" to abrogate
the Geneva conventions, that the Taliban and al-Qaida as non-signatories
were not covered by them, and that consequently Bush "declines to
exercise that authority at this time". Rumsfeld's damage control was
simply one front in the expanding Bush administration war for credibility.
-
- Vice-president Dick Cheney staged a preemptive strike
last week by reiterating that Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida had a relationship
and insinuating that they were in league. His intended target was the 9/11
commission, which is dangerously independent. Its Republican co-chairman,
Thomas Kean, replied that there was "no credible evidence" that
Saddam and al-Qaida had collaborated. Bush entered the battle, repeating
that there was indeed a "relationship". Then the Democratic co-chairman
of the commission, Lee Hamilton, explained that al-Qaida had in fact approached
Saddam seeking his help, but that it had been rebuffed. The rejection was
the relationship. But Bush and Cheney's affirmative assertions made it
seem that the "relationship" was affirmative.
-
- The urgency of Bush's credibility crisis surfaced in
the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll showing the collapse of Bush's
standing on terrorism, losing 13 points since April, putting Kerry even
on the issue and one point ahead in the contest. But even more worrying
was Bush's rating on trust. By a margin of 52% to 39%, Kerry is seen as
more honest and trustworthy.
-
- Since March 3, the Bush-Cheney campaign has spent an
estimated $80m on mostly negative advertising, to eliminate Kerry at the
starting gate. The strategy was the acceleration of the lesson of Bush's
father's victorious effort in the 1988 campaign when, 17 points behind
in mid-summer, he shattered Michael Dukakis with a withering negative attack.
-
- Now, Bush's opponent is not only moving ahead, but the
failed assault may insulate Kerry against future offensives. Bush had every
reason to believe that his attack on Kerry's image would succeed. After
September 11, he was able to impose his explanations on the public almost
without resistance and to taint anyone who contradicted them as somehow
unpatriotic.
-
- With Congress in Republican hands, checks and balances
were effectively removed. Most of the media was on the bandwagon or intimidated.
Cheney himself called the president of the corporation that owned one of
the networks to complain about an errant commentator. Political aides directed
by Karl Rove ceaselessly called editors and producers with veiled threats
about access that was not granted in any case. The press would not bite
the hand that would not feed it.
-
- But Bush's projection of images can only faintly be seen
on the screen, which is overwhelmed with Bush's past images of triumph
unreeling in reverse. The majority of the people had supported the war
in Iraq because they believed that Saddam was involved in the terrorist
attacks of September 11. Bush envisioned the Iraqi war unfolding into a
new world order: the liberation of Iraq resembling the liberation of France,
democracy flowering throughout the Middle East, and the Palestinians submitting
quietly to Sharon's fait accompli .
-
- But the neoconservative prophesies had been advanced
by suppressing the scepticism of the US intelligence agencies, the military
and the state department. Without deranging and dismissing the professionalism
of the basic institutions of national security, Bush would not have been
able to sustain his reasons. Bush's battle is not with image, but with
the unravelling of his reality.
-
- - Sidney Blumenthal is former senior adviser to President
Clinton and Washington bureau chief of salon.com
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1245877,00.html
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