SPECIAL DELIVERY: A
HOGWARTS HOWLER FOR THE AMERICAN VOTER
By Arianna Huffington
Oh, how I wish this column were capable of special
effects. If it were, the newspaper or computer screen
you're reading it on would suddenly morph into a Howler,
one of those bright red envelopes in the Harry Potter
books that, when opened, begin to shout at the recipient
in the sender's voice. In this case, my Greek-accented
cry would fill the air:
WAKE
UP!
WAKE
UP!!
WAKE UP!!!
Howler
A Howler is a bright red letter usually signifying
displeasure and anger from the sender directed at the
recipient. When opened, the Howler begins to yell in the
sender's voice at the recipient, eventually dissolving
into scraps of paper. If not opened, it will explode and
scream even louder.
The reason for my
distress is simple: I've just seen another round of polls
showing that, by a hefty 23-point spread, voters think
George W. Bush will make the country safer and more
secure than John Kerry. Karl Rove's VBD (Vote for Bush or
Die) strategy is clearly working.
And I'm left Howlering:
SAFER AND MORE SECURE? IN WHAT UNIVERSE???
For the public to be so dead wrong on this central issue
of the campaign, two things had to happen: The GOP had to
relentlessly hammer home their lies, and the other side
had to let them get away with it.
Last month, John Kerry said: 'More than 30 years ago, I
learned an important lesson. When you're under attack,
the best thing to do is turn your boat into the attack.'
The good news is that once he turns his boat into this
attack, he will absolutely never run out of ammunition.
The facts that prove that George Bush's prosecution of
the War on Terror has been an unmitigated disaster are
profuse and irrefutable.
But this Howler has to come in John Kerry's voice and the
message has to be delivered not just now and then but
pounded home, Rove-style, day after day, week after week,
until it sinks in.
Kerry simply cannot, as some are advising, look at the
poll numbers, cede national security to the other side,
and hope to win by going after Bush on health care and
jobs.
He needs to hit the president again and again and again -
right smack in the middle of his supposed strength:
Bush's strong, steadfast, unwavering, decisive leadership
in the War on Terror. This frontal assault on Bush's
terror strategy centers on all the ways this president
has failed us. So, let me review them:
For starters, there is his disastrous decision to invade
for all intents and purposes unilaterally Iraq, an
operation Bush termed a catastrophic success. More like a
catastrophic diversion of troops and money and focus that
would have been better spent, oh, I don't know, going
after the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11.
Right after those attacks, Bush said that capturing Osama
bin Laden was our number one priority. But three years
later, bin Laden is still on the loose and plotting to
attack us again, a fact that Bush and Cheney keep trying
to make us forget first by turning him into He Who Must
Not Be Named, and second by continuing to trot out the
lies connecting Saddam Hussein to 9/11. Lies so
thoroughly discredited that even loyal soldier Colin
Powell felt compelled last Sunday to shoot them down.
Yet, hard though it is to believe, a Newsweek poll last
week found that 42 percent of Americans still think
Saddam was directly involved in planning, financing or
carrying out the terrorist attacks.
I feel
another Hogwarts Howler coming on: REPEAT AFTER ME: THERE
WAS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN SADDAM AND 9/11.
NONE!
ZERO!
ZIP!
AAAAAH!
Bush's lust for Iraq kept us from securing Afghanistan,
most of which is now under the rule of barbaric warlords,
with the Taliban and the country's drug trade a major
source of funding for terrorist efforts worldwide making
a comeback.
What's
more, Bush's Baghdad folly has allowed the terrorists to
regroup. At his convention, the president had the gall to
claim that more than three-quarters of al-Qaida's key
members and associates have been detained or killed,which
makes it sound like the war on terror is all but won: 75
percent down; just a measly 25 percent to go!
In truth, according to a study by the respected
International Institute for Strategic Studies: -Qaida has
fully reconstituted and set its sights firmly on the USA.
The report also found that the war on Iraq had helped
al-Qaida recruit more members.
Still feeling safer? Then let's take a trip down
nerve-racking memory lane, back to October 2001, when
President Bush held a photo op at FBI headquarters and
announced a list of America's 22 Most Wanted Terrorists a
terrifying lineup he called the first 22 in a long-term
struggle, leaders and key supporters, planners and
strategists.Three years later, just three of these Most
Wanted have been captured or killed. The other 19 are
still on the loose.
So is it really any surprise that the number of people
killed and wounded in worldwide terrorist attacks is on
the rise?
Bush has also failed to stem the spread of nuclear,
chemical and biological weapons and materials. Take North
Korea and Iran. The president's all-consuming focus on
Iraq has allowed the other two spokes on the Axis of Evil
to push forward with their nuclear programs. While we
were spending billions looking for Saddam's nonexistent
WMD, Kim Jong Il was building more nukes and the mullahs
in Tehran were racing to do the same.
As if that weren't bad enough, Bush has dragged his feet
on efforts to keep loose nukes in the former Soviet Union
from falling into the wrong hands.
Still thinking Bush is the man to keep us safe and
secure? Then consider just a few of the ways he has
robbed our Homeland Security Peter to pay his foreign
occupation Paul:
Our ports are still woefully unprotected and underfunded.
Since 9/11, Bush has allocated just $441 million of the
$7.5 billion the Coast Guard says it will cost to protect
our ports from terrorist attacks. And, obviously not
having learned the lessons of Madrid, he's earmarked just
$100 million for rail security about what we spend on
eight typical hours in Iraq. The president has likewise
shortchanged airport security: Only eight of America's
440 airports have state-of-the-art baggage screening
machines.
And how's this for a kick in the teeth? The president's
cutbacks have actually left fewer police and first
responders on the streets today than were there on 9/11.
That's right: Bush has responded to the worst attack on
American soil by making us less prepared to deal with
another one.
So let's recap: Under George Bush, the guy who is going
to keep us safer, Osama has gone free; al-Qaida has
reloaded; terrorist attacks continue unabated; nukes keep
on spreading; the Muslim world is ferociously united
against us (and the rest of the world isn't too crazy
about us either); our ports, railways, roads and
borders remain unsecured; our police, firefighters and
first responders remain underequipped; and our armed
forces have been stretched perilously thin.
I'm all for having the election be a referendum on which
candidate will make the country safe and secure but only
after Kerry's inner Howler has had his say.
Said Howler is on cinematic display in a powerful new
documentary coming to a theater near you the day after
the first and only? presidential debate. For me, the
highlight of George Butler's Going Upriver: The Long War
of John Kerry is the story of Kerry's courageous and
inspiring efforts as a leader of the Vietnam veterans'
antiwar movement.
If Kerry can make the case against Bush's tragic failures
in Iraq and the War on Terror with half as much urgency
and moral clarity as he did against Nixon's failures in
Vietnam, the American people will be able to enter the
voting booth on Election Day with their eyes wide open.
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Carolyn's 
