Cheney Still Doesn't Get It

Vice President Cheney today continues the attack on those who claim the administration lied about pre-war intelligence. They are like an old-fashioned record stuck on a crack, repeating the same lines over and over.

The American people are sick of the war because all they know of it is the nightly barrage of insurgent bombings, dead American soldiers and the multitudinous voices of war critics.

It is becoming clear that this White House is institutionally incapable of speaking clearly and in a straightforward manner to the people. All we get is Bush's unsubstantiated assertion that we are winning in Iraq, delivered with a smirk that has become annoying in the extreme.

In Sunday's column David Brooks put it this way:

There's one area, though, where I completely sympathize with Jack Murtha. I sympathize with his frustration. On Feb. 23, 1942, Franklin Roosevelt asked Americans to spread out maps before them and he described, step by step, what was going on in World War II, where the U.S. was winning and where it was losing. Why can't today's president do that? Why can't he show that he is aware that his biggest problem is not in Iraq, it's on the home front?

Since the president doesn't give out credible information, it's no wonder Republicans are measuring success by how quickly we can get out; it's no wonder many Democrats are turning the war into a political tool to bash the president; and it's no wonder that people like well-meaning but weary Jack Murtha have simply given up.

There is most definitely a case to be made for our country's interest in completing the process of establishing a stable government in Iraq. Sadly, Americans are not hearing it from the White House.