The Issue is Not The Frame

by Dana Blankenhorn

The only reason the Bush or Kerry Vietnam records matter at all is because…we are in Vietnam right now.

Iraq is Vietnam. We’re bleeding people, we’re bleeding money, we’re bleeding our credibility, and we have no good way out. In terms of foreign policy it’s the early 1970s all over again. (Actually it’s the 1980s all over again, and we’re the Soviet Union. But you get the picture.)

Yet what have we talked about the last week? We talked about the frame. And our own Ernest Miller has been leading the charge. (http://www.corante.com/importance/archives/006222.php)

Here are the facts:

Kerry went, he saw, he participated, and then he felt bad about it. He tried to stop it, he failed, while thousands more died, but he did try. He was a man of his time.

Bush dodged going, he had arms twisted to get a cushie stateside gig, and he stopped meeting its requirements once the war began winding down. All while supporting the spilling of others’ blood. He was a man for a good time.

I think those facts inform how each would deal with Iraq today. Bush is not for changing. Kerry knows the difference between the Tactic of Iraq and the strategy required for a true War on Terror. He may change the former, he’s committed to the latter.

Those are the facts. The specifics of some memoes CBS got are irrelevant. Even if they’re as phony as Ernest Angley’s hair, they don’t change the facts. The facts have been proven over-and-over. The secretary of the man who, she says, didn’t type those specific memoes nonetheless said their content was TRUE.

George Bush was a draft dodger. George Bush was, and is, a chickenhawk.

Fact.

What’s the point? The point is those facts are denied by George W. Bush, just as he denies the facts on the ground in Iraq. That is his character. He has revealed his character.

So why has Ernest Miller been talking about the frame, and not the issue? (http://www.corante.com/importance/archives/006171.php). It’s because a right-wing PR agency (http://www.prweek.com/news/news_story_free.cfm?ID=222586&site=3) has been spinning it that way. Heck, they’re bragging about it.

Anyone who’s talking about the frame rather than the issue is letting themselves get spun. While brave men (and women) die in a situation just like the one that existed as George W. Bush dodged Vietnam while cheering it on from the sidelines. As he did then, so he does now. http://icasualties.org/oif/

Remember, Iraq is a war of occupation George W. Bush chose to fight. These are his tactics getting brave men killed. It’s a war his kids and his friends’ kids are all dodging, as he dodged Vietnam, only this time with the benefits of massive tax cuts designed to assure that their kids and grandkids will rule over your kids and grandkids like kings over dogs.

But if you think the issue is the frame, that it’s Dan Rather’s credibility, Ernest, you keep spinning. The way I see it is you’re spinning a lot of brave men into early graves.

Posted by Jon Lebkowsky at September 19, 2004 9:32 AM | TrackBack