Lack of National Security (3/28/2006)

President Bush’s approval rating is his lowest ever, down to a mere 37%. Even his ratings on national security have hit new lows due to his ongoing, rampant incompetence. Here’s the history:

One: Bush ignored early alarms about potential terrorist attacks. The Clinton transition team warned Bush that Al Qaeda was a threat, but he did nothing. Then, he ignored his own intelligence team’s August 6, 2001, Presidential Daily Briefing warning that Bid Laden would attack the US, and continued to vacation at his ranch.

Two: Bush neglected the hunt for Al Qaeda by underfunding and understaffing the intelligence unit charged with tracking it down. At a March 2002 press conference he said (quote), “So I don’t know where Osama Bin Laden is. You know I just don’t spend that much time on him…I truly am not that concerned about him.” (end quote)

Three: Bush went to war in Iraq, which had no weapons of mass destruction and no ties to the terrorists. Now Iraq has become a breeding ground for terrorists and is plunged into a civil war. Bush’s war has squandered our international goodwill, billions of taxpayer dollars and thousands of lives, with no end in sight. Deployment of our National Guard to Iraq has weakened our security at home. Nearly one-third of our troops in Iraq are National Guard members. Even Republican governors are upset that these Guard units and equipment are not here to handle natural disasters and terrorist threats.

Four: Bush’s Middle East policy is a total failure. When Bush first ran for president he promised he would not be a nation builder. Now Bush doctrine is that we’ll force democracy on Iraq, and all of the Middle East will follow. What a major policy flip flop! Well, Palestine and Iran have had elections, but Bush doesn’t like the results and calls both governments terrorist. In Iraq, Moqtada Sadr, a clerical leader who influenced that election, hates Bush and has vowed to defend Syria and Iran if the U.S. invades.

Five: The Bush team can’t handle natural disasters. Fully warned days ahead about hurricane Katrina, they were completely unprepared—from early evacuation, to providing food, housing, medical care, then rebuilding. When Katrina struck, Bush again was on vacation, Condoleeza Rice was buying shoes in New York, and Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff was attending a bird flu conference in Atlanta. Reports and congressional investigations indicate that no one on Bush’s staff wanted to tell him about the terrible damage, so they prepared a CD about it. Do you feel safer knowing our President doesn’t want to hear any bad news?

Six: Bush tried to sell our port security to a company owned by the United Arab Emirates. Some of the 9/11 hijackers used that country as an operational and financial base. The UAE was an important transfer point for shipments of smuggled nuclear components sent to Iran, North Korea and Libya by a Pakistani scientist. So Bush was willing to give critical port security to a place known for helping terrorists, and now he wants to sell our airport security to foreign countries. Meanwhile, our homeland security measures include making grandma take her shoes off at the airport and monitoring your phone calls, website searches, and what you read.

These are only some of the ways Bush has endangered the U.S. I wonder why anyone thinks Bush is strong on national security.

- Judith Kohler

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