Since the White House propaganda shop began its work in 2002 to sell the Iraq War, so often it has seemed America exists in a bizarro world, an Orwellian universe where up is down, good is bad and hot is cold. The Bush administration has led us down a freakish Yellow Brick Road, but instead of encountering lions, tigers and bears (oh my!), we find phantom WMDs, myths of Osama-Saddam links and Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo-style torture (oh dear!).
Thankfully, the two senior administration officials who championed these lies and failures have been rightly stripped of their posts. Whoops. That is what should have happened, but not what actually happened because we exist in this alternate universe. Those two officials received promotions, with great fanfare and praise. Yeah, that seems reasonable.
As we journey down the Yellow Brick Road, we see a nude pyramid of Iraqi prisoners, supervised by laughing, untrained U.S. reservists armed not with assault rifles and grenades, but dog leashes and digital cameras. We learn that Alberto Gonzales, the man who termed the Geneva Conventions “quaint” and “obsolete,” the man who provided President Bush the legal framework to authorize torture, is now the United States Attorney General – the nation’s highest law enforcement officer in the country. Obviously this position is well deserved considering his record of a solemn regard for the law.
Continuing down the road, off to our right we peer into the foreboding forest and see mushroom clouds, aluminum tubes and Saddam and Osama plotting the Great White Satan’s demise over two cups of decaf Mocha Java. Standing next to the two men is a brooding Condoleezza Rice, replete with her trademark laser-like glare emanating from those deep brown eyes, daring a left-winger to challenge the neoconservative view.
We see Rice on CNN on Sept. 8, 2002, alluding to mushroom clouds towering over U.S. cities, the result of a non-existent Iraqi nuclear weapon. We see her 17 days later on PBS swearing of an Iraq-al Qaeda connection that she knows to be unfounded. Finally, we see her at her West Wing desk on Sept. 4, 2001, finally honoring a request from counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke, who had called nine months before for an urgent meeting to discuss al Qaeda and bin Laden. It took nearly one year for the United States National Security Advisor to call a meeting on bin Laden, after he had already attacked the USS Cole, leveled our embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi and vowed to slaughter Americans at home and abroad.
But down the road, through the deep, dark woods, we see the promising and hopeful glow of the emerald city. Instead of seeing the dazzling sight of emerald fields, we see something even more amazing – the Democrats standing their ground and mounting an effectual party-in-opposition stance.
We see a substantial number of Democrats rebuking Rice for her failure as NSA and for her lead role in purposefully misleading the country and the world. We see a stunning number of Democrats, led by Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, who said Gonazales’ views contravene the U.S. Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions and the Army Field Manual as his party resoundingly said no to Gonzales.
When the vote was taken, 12 Democrats and independent Jim Jeffords of Vermont said no to Condoleezza Rice. The Senate rebuked only Henry Clay in 1825 more sharply for secretary of state in a 27-14 vote.
Wrapping up his floor speech regarding Rice’s confirmation, West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd said, “Her confirmation will most certainly be viewed as another endorsement of the administration’s unconstitutional doctrine of preemptive war, its bullying policies of unilateralism and its callous rejection of our long-standing allies.”
In perhaps the most amazing aspect of this bizarro world, we see Democrats voting in greater numbers against John Ashcroft’s successor, than Ashcroft himself – the poster child of disdain by the left. Four years ago, Ashcroft had the backing of eight Democrats; Gonzales had the support of six. Jeffords once again joined 35 Democrats to demand the administration respect codified international law.
Byrd again led the charge against an unacceptable nominee by saying in respect of Gonzales, “I do not believe our nation can rely on the judgment of a public official with so little respect for the rule of law.”
Senate Minority Leader and Nevada Sen. Harry Reid framed his “no” vote differently. “When interrogation turns to torture, it puts our own soldiers at risk,” he said.
What a bizarro world we inhabit. From Condi to Qaeda, Gonzales to Guantanamo, and Bob Byrd’s blasts from the Senate floor, everything seems inverted. Failures are rewarded and Democrats stand up and fight. Half of that equation provides hope; the other half makes one want to walk right off the cliff at the end of the Yellow Brick Road.
-The writer, a junior majoring in international affairs, is a Hatchet columnist.
