CHENEY AND THE IRAQ WAR

By far the greatest issue facing George W. Bush, as he gets well into his second term as president, is the war in Iraq. It is already a political issue, with a few but increasing demands for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. It promises to figure prominently in the congressional elections later this year. It is probably will figure in – or even dominate – the 2008 presidential campaign.

Vice President Dick Cheney has been a constant as the Iraq war began, expanded and now is approaching the end of its third year. He helped plan it. He led in promoting it to Congress and the American people. And he has consistently been a strong influence in justifying the war, staying the course, firing back against critics and insisting on the strongest methods to pursue the conflict until victory.

Currently, the vice president is the target of frequent criticism for advocating what detractors see as an imperial presidency – more evidence for this comes via the recent disclosure of warrantless wiretaps by the National Security Agency. That followed his long, ultimately losing campaign against Congress including the Central Intelligence Agency in a ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners.

But if the Bush administration will be known to history primarily for the war in Iraq, Mr. Cheney will forever be seen as the person who guided the nation toward it. His influence was decisive in the buildup for the Iraq invasion. He was a leader in promoting the belief – now discredited – that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were partners in the terrorist conspiracy, thus causing many Americans to blame Saddam for the 9-11 attacks in New York and Washington. He led in promoting the understanding that Saddam’s efforts to buy aluminum tubes and African uranium proved that he was developing a new nuclear weapons program. Both reports have been found to be false.

President Bush has quieted sentiment favoring a timetable for withdrawal through a series of speeches that did not have the White House’s usual “with us or with the terrorists” attitude. Yet U.S. military leaders are reported to be planning tentatively to begin extricating American forces next year. They are seeking additional billions of dollars to expand the training of Iraqi forces. Progress in that effort could well lead to pressure to cut back the U.S. war aims and simply announce victory and withdraw.

Mr. Bush so far rejects any such termination of the war. In one of his recent speeches, he said that “we will accept nothing less than complete victory.”

In the unlikely event that Mr. Bush would waver, the vice president can be counted on to fight like a tiger for continuation of the war for as long as it takes. All that increased power around the White House raises the level of responsibility commensurately.