To anyone with a sense of peaceableness, love of fellow man, or justice, in any nation of the world, the speeches by Zell Miller and Dick Cheney at the Republican National Convention must have been frightening, bewildering, and threatening. There were so many misstatements, frighteningly flawed analysis, and deadly threats that anyone would be hard pressed to recall hearing anything remotely similar at an American political convention in the entire history of the Republic.
First, Zell Miller, a former hard core segregationist and racist in the "bad old days" of post-Confederate Georgia, made the remarkably callous and false statement that democracy and freedom and the right to protest was won for Americans by soldiers, not protesters or activists. Perhaps Senator Miller has forgotten the Civil Rights Era where he and his colleagues tried so hard to prevent protesters from achieving governmental recognition of the constitutionality and legality of their civil rights. The only soldiers that brought civil rights to Georgia were the armies of civil rights activists that braved official persecution, police attack dogs and civil employees turning fire hoses on them. And clearly Zell Miller is unaware of the current attacks on freedom and democracy and attacks on protesters by New York City police and other law enforcement and "anti-terrorism" personnel in New York City. Zell Miller forgot to stand up FOR democracy and freedom in NYC in 2004 which has been suppressed by illegal detainment of large numbers of law-abiding dissidents.
Even members of the press and legal observers with city-provided documentation have been summarily jailed and kept incarcerated despite presentation of their credentials. Zell Miller seems to have forgotten that freedom and democracy are supposed to be hallmarks of American democracy, even during political conventions, and yes, even during the so-called "war on terror".
Both Zell Miller and Dick Cheney focused on the threats to America and its security. It would have been useful if they had actually quantified the numbers of soldiers and "terrorists" battling America at present. Most anti-terrorism "experts" would say that even Al Qaeda has only a few thousand members, and the total number of "terrorists" worldwide could not be more than a small multiple of even ten thousand humans. Yet, America has over 140,000 soldiers in Iraq fighting a small number of insurgents at great financial cost. The cost of transporting and equipping American soldiers in Iraq is very high to the American taxpayer. The cost of fuel for tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, jet fighters, helicopters and other mechanized equipment must be very high, too. And the Iraqi "insurgents" have no similar equipment at all! Then, the cost of ammunition, medical treatment and funerals for American fatalities adds up very quickly into the tens and tens of BILLIONS of dollars. Image the cost-effectiveness of putting all those taxpayer paid resources into Iraq, when we now know that the country of Iraq posed no threat to America and in fact, none of those fighting the American invaders would likely have ever been able to engage in combat on American soil! Under Bush/Cheney, America has chosen a preemptive, unnecessary, expensive war that has cost well over 1000 American lives, plus several times that many Iraqi lives. And the war has shown the world that America is a bloodthirsty, maniacal, hysterical, vengeful nation that is willing to spare no expense to attack innocent nations in fits of blood-lust and covetousness for their natural resources!
Zell Miller and Dick Cheney both complained about the supposed lack of support by John Kerry as American Senator for American weapons systems and military misadventures. Miller named various aircraft and ships and weapons that Kerry supposedly failed to support. Yet, one has to wonder — how many "enemy combatants" are now targeting the United States, its military personnel and even civilians because of revenge for the killing of their totally innocent friends, neighbors and relatives all over the world by American weapons and American forces. How many Americans have been shot in Iraq by people who were formerly supporters of America, but who became totally disillusioned and full of animus because of American misconduct in occupied Iraq, including torture at Abu Ghraib prison and use of those ballyhooed weapons that Zell Miller was so proud of.
Amazingly, people like Miller and Cheney still like to speak of Saddam Hussein’s torture of his own people in such prisons, while completely failing to mention the absolutely unconscionable American torture of Iraqi detainees simply to "fish" for information on the insurgency. In many cases, American tortured Iraqis with no apparent evidence to connect the Iraqis with terrorism or insurgency. In so doing, America has effectively recruited enemies to fight against — all of great financial benefit to the war profiteers.
The incessant of the events of 9/11/01 and the constant insinuation that revenge is still incomplete tell the entire world to beware of America. American blood-lust over 9/11 may NEVER be satisfied, and if you are a citizen of France or Germany or Syria or North Korea or Iran or anywhere else in the world, you may be our next target. Guilt is assumed by virtue of accusation, not evidence in the new American paradigm, and now we punish first and try not to waste too many resources on little matters like fact, truth, and evidence. Miller and Cheney have conveniently failed to disclose that essentially no one has been convicted anywhere in the world for crimes related to 9/11, except cases which were later overturned due to American judicial misconduct, malfeasance, or lack of real evidence.
This War on Terror is largely being fought with fraudulent evidence, with deceit, torture, and grossly unfair judicial practices. Why? Because the American paradigm in the War of Terror is based on blood-thirst, warmongering, and war profiteering.
The Republican National Convention has proved to be a great gathering of bloodthirsty, warmongering war profiteers. The world wide public who has watched this display has seen America at her very worst. Even the pathetic Kerry/Edwards show in Boston was benign by comparison.
The real theme of the Republican convention was "The American Eagle is Angry! Beware!"