During the elections, Sarah Palin was offended Katie Couric dared to ask her what news sources she read up in Alaska. Who can forget this:
I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, ‘Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, DC, may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?’ Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America."
I guess news arrives slowly in her neck of the woods. According to a report on her recent speech attacking Obama:
She told the crowd that "the terrorists are still dead set against us" and that her son Track is still deployed in Iraq.
"It is war over there, so it will not be war over here," she said. "And it had better still be our mission that we win, they lose."
Oh Sarah.... dontchya know.... Dick Cheney has completely ruined that talking point. I mean he totally trashed it girlfriend! Let me fill you in...
I know that "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here" meme is a real crowd pleaser. Hate to break it to ya... but it was a bit of an afterthought. Between you and me, I would dial it back a bit.
It's not like this was part of the original storyline anyway. That particular talking point didn't emerge until September 2004. By that point, we were well past "Mission Accomplished", the WMD were nowhere to be found, over a thousand US soldiers had died, costs were soaring out of control, and hundreds of thousands of people were protesting in the streets of New York.
Against that backdrop of bad news and popular outrage, the GOP was trying to hold its national convention in New York. Things were not going well. Even Nancy Reagan was mad at the RNC and Bush for the way they were wrapping themselves in Ronnie's mantle. They needed something to rally the troops. I don't mean the troops in the sandbox. I'm talking about the party Faithful. They also needed something that would shut up the opposition. In moments like this, the GOP did what they do best. They came up with a sound bite that could get played endlessly in the echo chamber.
"We're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here" became the new rationale for the war; probably one of the most cynical of reasons in a long line of ever-changing justifications for the invasion of Iraq.
Here's the original formulation:
The Global War on Terrorism will be a long fight.
But make no mistake we are going to fight the terrorists.
The question is do we fight them over there ---- or do we fight them here?
I choose to fight them over there.
You know who said that?
Surprise!!!! It was Tommy Franks in his speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention. That was the speech where he explained why he was endorsing George W. Bush.
That's right. September 2, 2004. The night Cheney was nominated and Bush was slated to give his acceptance speech. Drowning in bad news, the apologists and enablers of Bush's misguided adventure in Iraq grabbed on to that meme with the desperate ferocity of a drowning Titanic passenger grabbing on to flotsam in the icy waters of the northern Atlantic.
And they hit pay dirt. This meme was like the little engine that could. It was a very persuasive and powerful argument. The sound bite was so good, even Bush used it on various occasions. Like the time he addressed the soldiers at Ft. Hood in Texas:
"The terrorists have made Iraq a central front in the war on terror. Because of your sacrifice, we are defeating them there where they live, so we do not have to face them where we live. Our success in Iraq will make America safer, for us and for future generations.
Even if you forgive his poetic license blaming terrorists for our invasion, you can't deny it's a great line. Only an idiot would argue with the basic logic. However, if we were "over there" to fight "the terrorists" then one would have to assume the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 were actually in Iraq.
That brings us to the bad news, Sarah. Cheney's recent revelation that there "was NEVER any evidence" to support that claim effectively puts that talking point out of its misery. Hate to break it to ya, but Cheney just blew one of your favorite talking points out of the sky. It's time to retire it. As Nixon's press secretary, Ron Zigler, used to say when he got caught like this, "that statement is no longer operative."