Manipulation is key for Cheney

In response to a quote presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry
made regarding his desire for a “more sensitive war,”
Vice President Dick Cheney blasted him as being weak on defense.
Cheney stated “America has been in too many wars for any of
our wishes, but not a one of them was won by being
“˜sensitive.’

“A sensitive war will not destroy the evil men who killed
3,000 Americans and who seek the chemical, nuclear and biological
weapons to kill hundreds of thousands more. The men who beheaded
Daniel Pearl and Paul Johnson will not be impressed by our
sensitivity.”

I think it is obvious the vice president purposely
misinterpreted Kerry’s stance on defense ““ and the use
of the word “sensitive.” Once again, it seems members
of the Bush administration have chosen to manipulate the American
public to give it an unnecessary sense of fear.

Those who actually heard John Kerry’s quote know he was
not being soft on terrorism, as Cheney implies. Instead, Kerry told
minority journalists at the Unity 2004 conference in Washington
that “I believe I can fight a more effective, more
thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on
terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our
side.”

Kerry was not referring to being more sensitive to terrorists.
He was referring to reaching out to other countries to engage in a
multilateral effort to fight terrorism. He was showing his
opposition to the go-it-alone-with-guns-a-blazin’ actions
undertaken by the Bush administration.

To give the Bush administration some credit, drumming up
international support from other nations is not easy, but that does
not mean the United States should turn its head from its worldly
neighbors. The country needs their help to fight terrorism.

Whether in America or the Middle East, it angers me when people
choose to manipulate others; I especially resent people who use
fear to accomplish this manipulation.

The terrorists are not the only ones using the fear-for-power
method with their extreme actions and violence. The Bush
administration also is using fear to gain and sustain power in
often more subtle ways. At hand is an example of how the
administration has twisted Kerry’s words around in order to
make Americans doubt Kerry’s leadership and ability to
protect the country.

Cheney continues such manipulation by recalling American deaths
at the hands of the terrorists. Why is it that the Bush
administration said it was dishonorable to display the flag-covered
caskets of our fallen soldiers but allowed the broadcast a civilian
abductee moments before the abductee was beheaded by al Qaeda
operatives?

This seems to say it is moral to show people about to be put to
a gruesome death but immoral to show the coffins of the soldiers
who fought for our country. To me, this action is not only
hypocritical — it is manipulative. What better way to gather and
maintain support from Americans than to outrage them with images of
the deaths of innocents? Meanwhile, the less desirable effects of
war, such as American deaths or the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, are
hidden from the public eye.

Overall, Cheney uses images of fear as well as selective quotes
to cast doubt over his political opponents. I am tired of such
manipulation. Unfortunately, I would not be surprised if Bush
supporters who so faithfully believe everything Bush and Cheney say
take to manipulating my words, as well. What an effective method to
attain power.

Choflin is a fourth-year geology- paleobiology
student.