http://www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101%7E6267%7E1999906,00.html President Bush's campaign commercials showing images of the wreckage of the World Trade Center and firefighters carrying a stretcher through the rubble have angered some relatives of the victims of the terrorists attacks, who object to the crass political use of what for them was a personal tragedy. Last January, the president said he had "no ambition whatsoever to use this as a political issue," but the political exploitation of 9/11 is clearly the centerpiece of his re-election campaign. Why else would the Republican Party have its convention in New York City -- a city it openly despises as a liberal Gomorrah -- the week before the third anniversary?
Mr. Bush is waving the bloody shirt, the way Shakespeare has Mark Antony hold up the murdered Caesar's bloody toga to inflame the Romans against the assassins. The advertisement is not so much an argument as an emotional appeal -- the sight of the wreckage will make voters recall how vulnerable they felt after the attack and plays into the president's fear-based campaign strategy. It also serves to shift the debate from Democratic issues like health care and jobs to national security, which Mr. Bush sees as his strongest suit.
Well, all's fair in love and politics -- if Mr. Bush wants to run as a war president, let's discuss his performance. How could we have blown our chance to kill Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora? If, as the president has acknowledged, Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11, why did we invade Iraq? Why does Saudi Arabia, home of 15 of 19 hijackers, Osama bin Laden and most of his money, continue to enjoy a free pass? Why, when all our intelligence services said there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, did the president invade anyway?
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