ABC News aired an interesting interview with Dick Cheney last night — it was a pleasant surprise to see the VP willing to chat with a network other than Fox News — that covered quite a bit of ground relating to Iraq.
“The president carries the biggest burden, obviously,” Cheney said. “He’s the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, the all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm’s way for the rest of us.”
Raddatz noted that some soldiers, Air Force members, and Marines have been on multiple deployments and have been sent back to Iraq because of the stop-loss policy — an involuntary extension of a service member’s enlistment contract. The Army alone says 58,000 US soldiers have been redeployed to war because of the stop-loss policy.
“When you talk about an all-volunteer force, some of these soldiers, airmen, Marines have been on two, three, four, some of them more than that, deployments,” Raddatz said. “Do you think when they volunteered they had any idea that there would be so many deployments or stop-loss? Some of those who want to get out can’t because of stop-loss?”
“A lot of men and women sign up because sometimes they will see developments,” Cheney said. “For example, 9/11 stimulated a lot of folks to volunteer for the military because they wanted to be involved in defending the country.”
There are quite a few oddities here. First, the notion that Bush “carries the biggest burden” is part of a series of arguments about how the poor president deserves sympathy for sending U.S. troops into Iraq. Last year, for example, Laura Bush said “no one suffers more” than the president when it comes to the war. Shortly thereafter, Cheney, in response to a question about troop casualties, said, “Obviously, the President bears the major part of the burden.”
Does the Bush gang really think we should pity the president, who arguably couldn’t have handled this war any worse if he tried, because his conscience is weighing on him? Maybe some would consider sympathy if they thought he needed it — Bush told a reporter not too long ago, “I must tell you, I’m sleeping a lot better than people would assume.”
For the guy carrying the “biggest burden,” the president seems surprisingly unperturbed.
As for Cheney’s thoughts on our all-volunteer force, the VP’s right, a lot of Americans signed up to wear the uniform as a result of 9/11. But I imagine they did so because they trusted that the nation had leaders who would use the military responsibly and make judicious decisions on the use of force. The troops have held up their part of the bargain; have Bush and Cheney?
There was also this exchange:
When asked about the toll multiple deployments have taken on U.S. military members, Cheney fired back with a question.
“Of course it is, Martha,” Cheney said. “So what would be the solution to that? I mean how would you deal with that?”
From Cheney’s perspective, you don’t deal with that at all. Withdrawal is out of the question, a draw-down is off the table, and the Webb Amendment about giving troops more down time after their deployments has been rejected by Republicans on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. So, to hear the VP tell it, there is no “solution” — the administration’s policy of multiple deployments will continue to take its toll on servicemen, servicewomen, and their families.
If they don’t like it, tough. They shouldn’t have volunteered to serve in the military in Bush’s America.
Remind me which side of the political divide is supposed to be more enthusiastically “pro-military”?