The US elections are round the corner, and US President George W Bush is facing a hard time over Iraq as even some of his closest aides have admitted that some major mistakes were committed, Khaled Dawoud reports from Washington Indeed this hasn't been United States President George W Bush's lucky week. Following his first debate with Democratic opponent John Kerry, in which all opinion polls indicated that the Massachusetts senator managed to score a lead compared to the clearly annoyed and impatient president, Republicans were holding high hopes on the debate that took place late Tuesday between the experienced Vice-President Dick Cheney, and his rival, the rather political novice Senator John Edwards. While the volatile and bloody situation in Iraq has already been offering a sharp contradiction to the rosy picture which Bush and Cheney insist on presenting to the American people, statements made by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the former top occupation official in Iraq, Paul Bremer, 24 hours before the Cheney-Edwards confrontation, have cast a dark shadow of doubt on the credibility of any claims the US vice- president was planning to reiterate. The hawkish Pentagon top official said in a lecture in New York on Monday that he had seen no "strong, hard evidence" linking ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to Al- Qaeda, an organisation held responsible for the 11 September, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Claims on possible links between Iraq and Al-Qaeda were the basis on which Bush and Cheney decided to invade and occupy Iraq. Even after several independent and Congressional commissions concluded that such link did not exist, Vice- President Cheney continued to insist on the presence of such ties. And to add insult to injury, several US newspapers reported on Tuesday that Bremer conceded for the first time in recently-made remarks what amounts to a political taboo for the Bush administration: that the Pentagon was wrong in not deploying enough troops to invade and occupy Iraq, or in setting a clear plan for post-Saddam Iraq. The head of the now dissolved Coalition Provisional Authority, Bremer, also admitted that failing to stop the massive looting that took place in several Iraqi cities after the fall of the former regime has tremendously complicated the US mission, and led to the current state of lawlessness in Iraq. On 11 April, 2003, two days after the fall of Baghdad, Rumsfeld openly defended the insane looting that took place. "They (the looters) know what they're doing. And they're doing a terrific job. And it's untidy. And freedom's untidy. And free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things," he said in a news conference. Also on Tuesday, the American television network, ABC, dealt a heavy blow to another major claim made by Bush and Cheney to justify the Iraq war: the alleged link between Al- Qaeda leader, Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawi, held responsible by US officials for the worst violence that has taken place since the beginning of the US occupation of Iraq. ABC quoted a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official as saying that a report prepared for Cheney upon his request has found no conclusive evidence that the jailed Iraqi ex- President Saddam Hussein gave shelter to Al- Zarqawi. "The official says there is no clear-cut evidence that Saddam Hussein even knew that Al-Zarqawi was in Baghdad," ABC reported. The CIA report concluded that Al-Zarqawi was in and out of Baghdad, but cast doubt on reports that Al-Zarqawi had been given official approval for medical treatment there as Bush and Cheney have repeatedly said in earlier statements, ABC added. In the vice-presidential debate on Tuesday night, Cheney sounded more confident than Bush when he faced Kerry, confirming the common view in Washington that he was the mastermind behind the entire pre-emption doctrine and the Iraq war. The veteran politician, who usually speaks in a monotonous tone and without showing any emotions, simply disregarded all the latest statements made by Rumsfeld and Bremer and stuck to his guns. "What we did in Iraq was exactly the right thing to do," he said at the beginning of the debate. Edwards immediately shot back, and raised the key argument he has been making with Kerry in all recent appearances: that the US president and his deputy have not been telling the truth to the American people and the rest of the world. "You are still not being straight with the American people. I mean the reality you and George Bush continue to tell people, first, that things are going well in Iraq. The American people don't need us to explain this to them. They see it on their television every single day." He added, "We need a fresh start. We need a new president who has the credibility, which John Kerry has, to bring others into this effort." Cheney, like his boss, attacked Kerry over a statement he made during last week's debate on how the US needed to pass a "global test" before taking pre-emptive action. For Bush, that's restraining America's ability to act alone to protect its own security and allowing "countries like France" or the United Nations to veto its decisions. The US vice-president also charged that Kerry's record in the Senate over the past 20 years proved that he has always been an anti-war candidate; therefore, he cannot be trusted to become a commander-in-chief in the ongoing US war against terror. As expected, he stressed the image Republicans are seeking to portray of Kerry as a "flip-flop" who changes his positions to assure his own political survival. Cheney said Kerry turned against the Iraq war after it appeared that his main opponent in the Democratic primaries, Howard Dean, was winning because of his opposition to the military adventure. "Now, if they couldn't stand up to the pressures that Howard Dean represented, how can we expect them to stand up to Al-Qaeda?" Cheney said. But to prove that Kerry was equally hawkish, Edwards recalled how the Democratic candidate vowed in last week's debate that he would never allow any country or international organisation to veto US decisions. He also charged that while the Bush administration has been harsh on Iraq, it allowed other countries like North Korea and Iran to develop their own nuclear programmes. Knowing that Cheney's former links to the giant US corporation, Halliburton, has proved to be one of his major weaknesses especially following accusations by the Pentagon that the company has been overcharging the US occupation troops in Iraq for meals and services, Edwards claimed that the US vice- president has went as far as calling for lifting sanctions against Tehran when he served as the company's president. "This vice-president has been an advocate for over a decade for lifting sanctions against Iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism on the planet. It's a mistake. We should not only lift them, we should strengthen those sanctions," Edwards said. He added that Cheney also favoured doing business with Iran and Libya while the two countries were seen as Washington's staunchest enemies. One area where the two candidates did not differ, however, was in expressing strong support for Israel when asked about the current volatile situation in Gaza, which led to the death of more than 80 Palestinians over the past week. "The Israeli people not only have the right to defend themselves, they have an obligation to defend themselves," Edwards said while clearly having in mind the influence of vital American Jewish votes. "Now, we know that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has made a historic decision, to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza. It's important for America to participate in helping with that process. Now if Gaza's being used as a platform for attacking the Israeli people, that has to be stopped and Israel has a right to defend itself. They don't have a partner for peace right now. They certainly don't have a partner in [Palestinian President Yasser] Arafat," he said even though on the same day several Arab-American organisations declared that they were planning to support the Kerry-Edwards ticket. "And I might add, it is very important for America to crack down on the Saudis, who have not had a public prosecution for financing terrorism since 9/11. And it's important for America to confront the situation in Iran because Iran is an enormous threat to Israel and the Israeli people," Edwards added. Cheney, too, expressed support for Israel. After reiterating charges that the ousted Iraqi leader used to pay money to the families of Palestinians who carry out military attacks, he said: "I personally think one of the reasons that we don't have as many suicide attacks today in Israel as we had in the past is because Saddam's no longer in business. We've been strong supporters of Israel. The president stepped forward and put in place a policy, basically, that said we will support the establishment of two states, first president ever to say we'll establish and support a Palestinian state next door to Israelis. But first there has to be an interlocutor you can trust and deal with, and we won't have that. We don't have it now under Yasser Arafat. There has to be reform of the Palestinian system." However, most observers agree that what will be more important than the vice- presidential exchange are the two upcoming debates to be held between Bush and Kerry. The upcoming debate, considered to be particularly crucial for Kerry, will be held late Friday in St Louis, Missouri, while the last one is due on 13 October at the University of Arizona. At the time opinion polls showed that the two candidates were running neck to neck.
