Bush Trifles With National Security

Here are some of Bush's LATEST failures on national security.

1. Funds to defend our nation are still being treated as a money pot to win votes. The New York Times reports desperately needed money is still streaming out to rural states that have virtually no need for it. Alaska is so rich in funds and has so little need for it (is Al Quaeda going to send suicide bombers into the tundra?) that the governor suggested they use their money to buy a jet. Meanwhile, most containers coming into this country remain unchecked, our borders are porous, etc.

Doling out money wisely where security demands it? Not as important as greasing the palms of friendly governors and certainly not as important as Bush's reelection.

2. Bush's snide attitude has cost us respect with our allies and his hatred for the UN, the Geneva Convention and decency towards the vanquished (Abu Ghraib) has made the world see us as hyprocrites. The New York Times details Bush's failings at building relations with the rest of the free world. Mexico's former foreign minister says sadly that Bush became aloof, brusque and abrasive.

"It is a characterization of Mr. Bush's foreign policy style often heard around the world: bullying, unreceptive, brazen. The result, critics of this administration contend, has been a disastrous loss of international support, damage to American credibility, the sullying of America's image and a devastating war that has already taken more than 1,000 American lives."

Rice's defensive defense? We're buddies with Russia and Czar Putin, who has used terror to dominate minorities under his domain. We're buddies with China, which tortures and kills dissidents and nutty cult people who want to meditate a la Falun Gong because they see anything they can't control as a danger (that's when they're not wiping out the Tibetans). And we're buddies with Pakistan, which of course is the world's preeminent seller of nuclear-building material and know-how to terrorists and terrorist states.

Mending fences with long-term allies and getting them to invest (in every way) in the success of our mission in Iraq? Not as important as Bush's reelection.

3. Bush avoids dealing with Iran because it might look "soft." Yep, major progress could be made with Iran, but Bush would rather wait till after the election to make the deal that's out there (one laden with incentives a la the Clinton deal with North Korea). Major nuclear threat? Not as important as Bush's reelection.

This ties in with Bush's refusal to let the troops do their job and regain control of cities in Iraq controlled by insurgents. The military should have acted months ago to let things stabilize before the January elections. Besides, every day you let the insurgents stay in control of huge chunks of Iraq is another day where allies get disheartened. But Bush was afraid death tolls and bloody fighting would look bad before the election. A stable, free Iraq with valid elections in which much of the country is quiet and the Sunnis actually participate? Not as important as Bush's reelection.