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If George W. Bush is remembered for his innovation as president, it may be for his execution of a national no-fault security strategy. While the previous inhabitant of the White House certainly appeared irresponsible, the current one may have perfected the art of evading responsibility, and even institutionalized it.
Americans ought to reflect on just how the no-fault strategy works, and for whom.
The President, Vice President and Pentagon admittedly went to war in Iraq based on doubtful information provided, with caveats, by the CIA. The President, Vice President, and senior appointees at the Pentagon then took the shakiest of that doubtful information and presented it as hard fact to drum up political support in the Congress and around the country. The CIA Director has resigned, and the Congress has indicated that the CIA needs cultural reform. However, all executive political decision-makers involved still hold their jobs, and have not been reprimanded. After all, it wasn't their fault!
The Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi, darling of the administration and prime ministerial material for Iraq despite his conviction for bank fraud in Jordan, is now suspected of giving "Axis of Evil" charter country Iran top secret United States intelligence. The United States pet government in Baghdad has issued arrest warrants for Chalabi and his equally well-connected nephew Salem, on charges of counterfeiting and murder, respectively. His Pentagon and National Security Agency advocates and conduits to the White House remain in places of trust, heads held high as proud civil servants. Of course, none of it was their fault.
The official evaluation of 9-11 prevention and response amazingly confirms that no government firings or demotions are needed. All political masters and their civil servants were innocent of any negligence or even poor performance. Whatever happened, it wasn't their fault.
Paul Bremer, former high governor of Iraq, was expected to properly manage the reconstruction and the development of a pre-democratic state in Iraq. The GAO now has a whole series of reports on how badly that operation has gone, replete with illegalities, waste, and sheer bureaucratic idiocy. Did we fire Paul Bremer, or send him home as an example of what we will not tolerate in our security policy? Of course not. It wasn't his fault!
Contractors now provide most of our extended global support for our extended military operations. A July 2004 GAO report found a variety of problems in this arena, specifically with the well-connected monstrosity called Halliburton. The answer? Stop picking on Halliburton! It's not their fault (or Dick Cheney's)!
The Bush Administration has been criticized for revealing the name of a CIA NOC agent who worked WMD proliferation issues in political retaliation, and more recently, in revealing the name of a highly valuable double agent we had in the al Qaeda organization, apparently in a gambit to raise domestic polling points. Some might presume that this kind of thing is counterproductive in fighting terrorism and making the world safe for democracy. No matter, it simply wasn't anyone's fault.
In the Bush administration, some actually do pay the price for policy and strategy mistakes. Detainees held in Guantanamo and elsewhere, caught up in the driftnets of the "war on terror," are deprived of due process, legal representation, and exposure to either their families or the charges against them, for years. No effective advocacy for these guilty parties is in sight. Our government insists it was their fault.
Over 150,000 soldiers and marines are deployed, extended, and deployed again in Iraq and Afghanistan, often without the equipment and training they need and the meals and fuel for which the government paid, into an operating environment where the mission statement boils down to simply "Stay alive." For every man or women who dies in Iraq or Afghanistan, seven to ten others are evacuated and receive some type of medical or psychological treatment, often including the long term physical therapy and the fitting of prostheses. Of those who return in one piece, many have been exposed to depleted uranium or have long term reactions to the various inoculations received prior to and during their deployment. Hey, they are all volunteers, right? They signed up for it!
There are ten to twenty thousand contractor security personnel in Iraq, and their deaths and injuries are not reported. The deaths of coalition members and the deaths of Iraqis of all ages and genders are also rarely mentioned. Well, the former are well-paid for what they do, and the latter asked for it.
Here's a number that gives an idea of who's paying, and who will continue to pay. We currently have 518,739 disabled "Gulf War I era veterans" receiving disability compensation, representing more than 73 times the number of wounded from the entire 14-year conflict with Iraq. No doubt, our long-term Iraq occupation under hostile fire will add, in similarly disproportionate terms, to that number of disabled and sick veterans. Well, surely the Veterans Administration will come to their aid, even with the Bush budget cuts.
And don't forget, the enlisted folks charged with abuse in the Abu Ghraib prison and other American prisons overseas are being held accountable, with courts-martials and a hostile government to ensure they pay the price. And why not? Those soldiers should have known better than to do what they were told by their chain of command. What were they thinking?
The latest news for the rest of the country relates to growing risk of terrorist attacks, skyrocketing oil prices, wholesale prices up and a roaring trade deficit. Free trade, including trade deficits, theoretically mean lowered costs for domestic consumers, even as specialization sends certain jobs overseas. That's not working out these days, but hey, it's no one's fault.
George W. Bush, John Kerry, and most of the Congress appear quite pleased with the current no-fault security strategy. I wonder if the average American is as delighted.
