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Cheney, a “girlie man” on defense, by Lonna Gooden VanHorn

The Republican campaign is based, not on their abysmal record, but on fear-mongering and slander.  This “Christian” administration is bearing so much false witness it makes one’s head spin.  Kerry and Teresa are being accused of every kind of evil imaginable, all of which can be refuted if Bush voters were actually interested in facts and the truth.  Additionally, Kerry is being accused of being “weak on defense” as a senator.  If Kerry is weak on defense, Dick Cheney was an absolute “girlie man.” 

Kerry voted against two pork laden defense appropriation’s bills, as did many others.  In response before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 31, 1992, then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney castigated the Democratic controlled Congress for not cutting weapons systems enough. 

“Overall, since I've been Secretary, we will have taken the five-year defense program down by well over $300 billion… And now we're adding to that another $50 billion … of so-called peace dividend…

Congress has let me cancel a few programs. But you've squabbled and…  bickered and horse-traded and ended up forcing me to spend money on weapons that don't fill a vital need in these times of tight budgets and new requirements. … You've directed me to buy more M1s, F14s, and F16s—all great systems … but we have enough of them.”  http://slate.msn.com/id/2106119                                                                               

           Cheney's interest in unfettered defense spending did not occur until he became the CEO of a corporation that would benefit from it.  

           As Bentio Mussolini, the father of fascism said, "Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism since it is a merger of State and Corporate power."  Cheney, acting in his capacity as a bagman for Halliburton which has been his primary concern since '92,  Bush, and this entire administration have been doing their best to make that blending of state and corporate power a reality here in the United States.  As General Smedley Butler said "wartime profits, the sky's the limit.  Uncle Sam's got the money, let's go get it."  Cheney's first priority is seeing to it Halliburton gets its share of the pie.  And then some. 

           The uncomfortable facts for the Republicans remain that Bush was warned “Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.,” yet he did nothing.  That Bush is so ineffective as a leader he is not even able to "smoke out" the person within his own administration who "outed" a CIA agent.   That he and his administration wanted war in Iraq so badly they twisted intelligence to make it say what  they wanted it to .              

           Our "strong" leader George Bush was indisputably AWOL from the TANG.  He spent September 11^th three years ago running away from danger, hiding in a Nebraska bunker, while on a far away Vietnam river Kerry took the initiative and turned three swift boats into the fire, taking the fight to the enemy.  

          Then, when he came home, Kerry did the bravest thing of all.  Like hundreds of thousands of others he tried to tell the truth about that awful war so that other American soldiers would not be made to die or be maimed for the sake of corporate profit, as has happened to nearly 8000 American soldiers to this point in time in another war for corporate profit being fought, now,  in Iraq.  http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=863  

           Before Bush became president approximately 80% of the world's 6 billion people had a favorable impression of the United States.  Now that percentage has been reversed.  Now instead of 4 billion 8 hundred million people wishing America and Americans well, that many people hate us -- many of them hate us intensely.  Especially since Abu Ghraib.  How  has making billions more people around the world hate us made us safer??  As British journalist Robert Fisk has said, George Bush is the best recruiting poster Osama Bin Laden has ever had. 

           Because George Bush is hated and despised and thought of as a dangerous fool by the majority of people around the world, he cannot turn the numbers of people who hate us around.  John Kerry has a chance of doing so, and we know he will try.  The people of the world understand Kerry is intelligent and capable of reason. 

           God help us all if Bush is actually elected!

           If you are at all interested in truth or facts, read the links I have included in this article.        

           Bio:  Lonna Gooden VanHorn was born and raised on a small farm in Minnesota.  The mother of six and a grandmother, she began writing during the run up to war out of her frustration over what she perceived as the media’s failure to provide the American people with the information they needed to make an informed decision. Lonna now lives in New Mexico with her husband, a veteran who spent 18 months in Vietnam.