Bush Talks Tough With No Action

With their poll numbers sagging and their credibility all but evaporated three weeks before Election Day, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have resorted to tough talk and fear tactics to try to distract from their failed policies. This tough talk hasn’t worked. In fact, they've taken their eye off the ball, making America less safe. North Korea may be preparing for another nuclear test, thousands of Iraqi police officers have been fired for corruption, and the Iraqi Prime Minister has publicly expressed his frustration with the Bush Administration.

“It is clearer than ever that the Bush Administration’s tough talk is no substitute for a real plan for victory in Iraq and the war on terror,” said Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Stacie Paxton. “The lower their poll numbers drop, the more desperate the Bush Administration gets and the cheaper their political shots become. President Bush’s failed foreign policies aren’t getting the job done. America is ready for a new direction that includes policies that are both tough and smart.”

The Bush Administration Uses Tough Talk To Scare Americans

Vice President Cheney: If We Leave Iraq, The “Enemy Will Come After Us.” “‘We know that if we leave Iraq before the mission is completed, the enemy will come after us,’ Cheney said to nearly 5,000 soldiers from Fort Campbell who had gathered on soggy training grounds to hear Cheney speak.” [AP, 10/17/06]

President Bush:

• Today: “One of the terrorists believed to have planned the 9/11 attacks said he hoped the attacks would be the beginning of the end of America.” [President Bush, 10/17/06]
• At A Fundraiser In Chicago Last Week: “… listen to the words of Osama bin Laden or Zawahiri, who is the number two of al Qaeda, who have said clearly their ambitions are to drive us out of Iraq so they can establish a safe haven from which to launch further attacks; to drive us out of Iraq so they can have resources to use to fund their ambitions; to drive us out of Iraq so they can topple moderate governments. Imagine a world in which there are violent forms of extremists who've crushed the hopes of moderate, decent people because they have this ideology that is so foreign to us. Imagine a world in which they could use oil to blackmail the free world. Imagine that world, as well, with a group of people that don't care for America, with a nuclear weapon.” [President Bush, 10/12/06]
• Bush’s Press Conference Last Week: “It is conceivable that there will be a world in which radical forms, extreme forms of religion fight each other for influence in the Middle East, in which they've got the capacity to use oil as an economic weapon. And when you throw in the mix a nuclear weapon in the hands of a sworn enemy of the United States, you begin to see an environment that would cause some later on in history to look back and say, how come they couldn't see the problem?” [President Bush, 10/11/06]

Meanwhile…

North Korea May Proceed With Second Nuclear Test. “North Korea may be preparing for a second nuclear test, South Korean and Japanese officials said today, as the Communist state threatened “merciless blows” against any country imposing the sanctions just adopted by the United Nations Security Council. A spokesman for the North Korean foreign ministry called the sanctions a “declaration of war” and said that the regime in Pyongyang was more confident in its ability to deter attacks now that it had joined the nuclear club. American officials on Monday confirmed for the first time that North Korea did set off a nuclear explosion on Oct. 9, as it claimed, and that the blast was far smaller than would normally be expected, suggesting that the test may have misfired. That could give North Korea two motives for a second test, nuclear scientists and security analysts said: To proclaim defiance of the sanctions and to show that it is capable of a successful nuclear detonation.” [New York Times, 10/17/06]

3,000 Iraqi Police Officers Fired. “Iraq's National Police is being completely reorganized and over 3,000 officers have been dismissed, the Iraqi interior ministry spokesman has said. Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf told reporters at a press conference in the heavily fortified Green Zone on Tuesday that 1,228 had been sacked for breaking the law while nearly 2,000 more were dismissed for dereliction of duty.” [AFP, 10/17/06]

Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki Says US Is Undermining His Government. “Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki told President Bush on Monday that U.S. officials have been undermining his government, and sought reassurance that the administration was not preparing to abandon him. During a 15-minute morning phone call, Maliki said he was concerned that U.S. officials had openly suggested imposing a two-month deadline for him to gain control of militias and quell sectarian violence, said White House Press Secretary Tony Snow.” [Los Angeles Times, 10/17/06]