Nov. 07, 2003 - 19:09 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Flippin' Figures

I wish that perhaps it would be possible for me to have the gift of language and logic that Mike Littwin the Rocky Talk columnist of the Rocky Mountain News has. In his column this morning, "Don't believe all is well ? Just ask Cheney"

"In case you were worried -- and it's been months since anyone mentioned duct tape -- everything is going swimmingly. I can report this to you with confidence because I just got back from the Hyatt Regency Denver and the Ben Campbell fund-raiser, starring Smilin' Dick Cheney."

And Mr. Littwin goes on, "Cheney had good news on the economy, good news (if you're a Republican) on the electoral front and good news on Iraq. Of course it's possible this could be a selective reading."

Then Mr. Littwin mentions a few items that were dealt with or slid over, He says, "I didn't hear much, for example, about the deficit or job growth. I heard about three new Republican governors but not so much about Arnold Schwarzenegger's spat over the Gropinator scandal. And I heard nothing about the soldiers dying in Iraq. George W. Bush, as you may know, hasn't attended any of the funerals. The Pentagon, meanwhile, has enforced a ban on photos of coffins returning from Iraq. Apparently, funerals and coffins don't fit in neatly with the good-news theme that is being pushed in advance of the 2004 elections."

Mr. Littwin quotes the shrub, "There's a sense that the people in America aren't getting the truth," the president said recently." "I'm mindful of the filter through which some news travels. And sometimes you just have to go over the heads of the filter and speak directly to the people. And that's what we will continue to do."

Then Mr. Littwin says, "On a day when the president was in Washington making the case for more democracy in the Arab world. Bush chastised Iran and Syria in his speech. He nudged Egypt. He praised Saudi Arabia -- and I'm not filtering here -- for taking first steps toward reform, including a plan for gradual introduction of elections."

Mr. Littwin continues, "While Bush looked ahead, Cheney took some time to shore up the recent past -- the battle that led to the Iraq War. It's the war that the Democrats are still fighting, the one that Howard Dean has used to lift himself from obscurity, the one in which Cheney himself was directly involved."

Later Mr. Littwin writes, "It was Cheney, remember who said American troops would be, "greeted as liberators. And it was Cheney who said of Saddam Hussein, "We do know with absolute certainty that he is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon." Mr. Littwin carries on from there "But Cheney is not giving up. Let me give you a non-filtered version from Cheneys speech Thursday night: "In Iraq, a ruthless dictator cultivated weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them. He gave support to terrorists and establilshed a relationship with al-Qaida. His regime is no more."

Mike says further, "The regime is no more. Saddam was ruthless. And then we get to some problems. No weapons of mass destruction have been found, of course, unless we are talking about a decade old cultivation. But more to the point, the experts searching for WMD have suggested there was apparently no recent program for the real weapons of mass destruction, the nuclear ones that Cheney discussed. So why is he still making that argument ? Why, for that matter, is he still calling Saddam's "relationship" with al-Qaida a fact when the facts remain unproven ?"

Mr. Littwin has more to say, "The Bush Administration has been accused of picking and choosing among the intelligence reports to make its case in Iraq. I can't judge that with any certainty, but I did read this in a Nicholas Kristof column in the New York: On a recent Meet The Press Cheney invoked a Zogby International poll as showing Iraqs would choose a U.S. form of government "hands down."

Then as near as I know Mr. Littwin shines a light on it, "Actually according to James Zogby, the poll indicated that 23 percent chose the U.S. model, while 17.5 percent chose Saudi Arabia, 12 percent Syria, 7 percent Egypt and 37 percent "none of the above."

More figures." Mr. Littwin goes a bit further and writes, "Cheney also said that 60 percent want the U.S. to stay at least another year. Here are the results, 31 percent said the U.S. should leave in six months; 34 in a year; 25 in two or more years."

Mr. Littwin ends, "Maybe that's why Donald Rumsfeld predicted in his leaked, but unfiltered, memo that the U.S. was in for a "long, hard slog."

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Then a bit about an article by Terence Hunt of the Associated Press, headlined in the Rocky Mountain News, "BUSH: WEST ERRED" "Repudiating decades of U.S. policy, president Bush said Thursday the United States and its allies have been wrong in "excusing and accomodating" a lack of freedom in the Middle East." "The failure of Iraqi democracy would embolden terrorists around the world, increase dangers to the American people and extinguish the hopes of millions in the region," Bush said." "Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accomodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe -- and in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty," the president said in a groundbraking conclusion"

Mr. Hunt then quotes some Middle East scholars. He reports that Bush's appeal for democracy lacked any followup programs. "No new programs announced, no new money for promoting democracy -- just rhetoric," said Martin Indyk, who had been assistant secretarty of state for the Middle East in the Clinton administration."

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In my mind it seems that Mr. Bush has some darn good speechwriters. But it seems to me that it is just speeches he gives, nothing really concrete. I don't hate him, just think he says what he thinks the public wants to hear, regardless of which way the administration eventually will go.

Graphs, pie charts and all that do not illustrate reality if they are based on falsehood and/or insincerity. They are always around, these Flippin' Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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