When you saw that title, you were probably outraged by the audacity of such a statement. Amazingly, that title did not come from the likes of Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh. No, it was paraphrased from the following statement by the Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney:
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"It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on Nov. 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States," Cheney told about 350 supporters at a town-hall meeting in this Iowa city.
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http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20040907_956.html
In response, John Edwards had this to say:
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"Dick Cheney's scare tactics crossed the line today, showing once again that he and George Bush will do anything and say anything to save their jobs. Protecting America from vicious terrorists is not a Democratic or Republican issue, it's an American issue and Dick Cheney and George Bush should know that.
"John Kerry and I will keep America safe, and we will not divide the American people to do it."
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http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=35758
Cheney's statement brings right out into the open what has been their primary strategy all along: Exploit the painful memories of 9-11 in order to scare Americans into voting not based on the facts, but on fear alone.
The statement implies that as long as we keep Bush and Cheney in power, everything will be ok and we won't be attacked again. This is incredibly disingenuous, but I suppose it won't matter to them if they get elected which is all they appear to care about.
It would be one thing to point out differences in opinion on how we should fight the War on Terror, but Bush and Cheney have not done that. Instead they have tried to pit one American against the next by claiming that only the Republicans want to "terminate terrorism". I guess when President Bush says "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists", the "us" stands for the Republican Party.
As one of our greatest presidents told us "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Likewise, I think we as Americans should be wary of those who would use fear to divide us.