Security

So now we learn (surprise) that the 06 election are going to "be about security".  Well, I can't speak for the democrats, but I'd like to raise a voice for sanity.  So let us take a few moments to compare a sane security strategy to the Bush/Cheney security strategy.

First, a sane security strategy would return this country to the bipartisan internationalist coalition that won the cold war, an effort that was lead by the United States.  

The Bush/Cheney security strategy revels in pissing off the planet, alienating long term allies, sabotaging international treaties, and generally acting like adolescents on the world stage.

A sane foreign policy would understand that our dependence on petroleum is a loaded gun to our heads, forcing the entire industrialized world to be dependent on the most unstable part of the world and pumping huge sums of money into the hands of people and regimes that would do us harm.

The Bush/Cheney security strategy actually increases our dependence on petroleum and is actively using the military in a vain attempt to enhance access.

A sane security strategy would focus on nuclear non-proliferation particularly the danger of "loose nukes"

The Bush/Cheney security strategy hasn't even requested the necessary funding for the programs required to do this work.  They've shown a criminal neglect in this area, that mirrors the performance of FEMA but has occurred off-stage and won't be apparent until after the unthinkable occurs.

A sane security strategy would see a return to "The Powell Doctrine" whereby we actually learned from the Vietnam experience.  Where, once upon a time, we resolved to never get involved in a military action unless we had an exit strategy.  Unless we committed to use overwhelming force.

The Bush/Cheney security strategy, after endlessly harping about this in the 2000 campaign, threw it all out the window for the chance to invade Iraq after 9/11.  An act that has been likened to Franklin Roosevelt invading Mexico after Pearl Harbor.  In so doing they have done every thing they accused Clinton of doing in spades.  They have broken the army.  They have exposed the limits of American military power to our enemies around the world who see the entire US military pinned down by a rag tag band of Iraqi insurgents and terrorist trainees with no real leadership or weapons to speak of.

A sane security policy would have focused our international, law enforcement and military assets on destroying, apprehending and bringing to justice the people who attacked us on September 11, 2001.

The Bush/Cheney security strategy has made matters worse.  The have created the worlds largest terrorist training camp in Iraq.  Four and a half years later, after all the bluster after all the expense, after taking off our shoes at the airport, after all the dead people after the pointless war in Iraq, the Bush/Cheney team still has not killed or apprehended either Osama bin Laden or his top people and the organization has metastasized into something that is more dangerous than it was the day of the original attacks.  There are estimates that the Iraq War may end up costing as much as $2 Trillion!  Imagine what we could do with an international law enforcement effort that was really focused on terrorism that was funded at anywhere near that level.  Instead, we are utterly wasting those funds creating an Islamic State in Iraq.

Yes the Bush/Cheney team are going to run on security.  That is a fact.  And the fact that they think they can get away with it is a sad testament to the state of political discourse and reporting in this country today.

•  Who says that the election is about security?

  That criminal Rove?  And you're going to fucking let him set the agenda?  This is how we've lost every single goddamn election for the last 10 years.  We let fucking Karl Rove frame the issues and set the agenda and then try to compete on their terms.

  No, sir.  Let's not let this election be about security.  Let's let it be about the economy, about health care, about poverty, about minimum wage, about the outsourcing of our industrial base to China.

  The sheer irony of it!  The criminal Karl Rove, who was instrumental in the outing of a CIA agent, thus damaging our national security, setting the agenda for the next election as being about national security?

  And we meekly follow along?

  by DC Pol Sci on Sat Jan 21, 2006 at 07:00:48 PM PDT

  •  I believe

    in utterly destroying your enemies perceived strengths.  Particularly when they are actually weaknesses.  As you correctly point out, the election should be about these other issues.  That is why a frontal attack cutting the legs out from under the security issue is the best strategy.  Otherwise, their playbook will be to manipulate the media to use security to trump what should be the primary issues.  They can do this because the executive can manipulate the security issue.  They can manipulate the news cycle and pull all the oxygen away from the other issues.  A full frontal attack can put them on the defensive make more reluctant to raise the issue and give space for the domestic issues to come to the for.  

    by SW on Sat Jan 21, 2006 at 07:09:14 PM PDT

•  not to worry

  they a leg do not have upon which to stand

  by spoon or no spoon on Sat Jan 21, 2006 at 07:15:13 PM PDT

•  I will feel more Secure

  After we IMPEACH Bush.
  AFTER WE BRING THE TROOPS HOME
  After we stop spying on Americans
  After we downsize the Supreme Court to keep Alito out and get rid of Scalia, Thomas, and Roberts
  After we restore funding to Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security and FEMA
  After we remove the Defense Department from the Executive Branch and return it to Congress
  After we do away with ursurious interest rates
  After we kick the crooked Republicans out of Congress
  After we get rid of the neo-cons and their imaginary terrors designed to keep money flowing to the military industrial complex instead of health and Human Services.
  After we start doing something about the environment and global warming
  After all the Democrats start posyting in KOS
  

  by rktect on Sat Jan 21, 2006 at 07:37:02 PM PDT

  •  we gonna do it

    to this we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor

    by spoon or no spoon on Sat Jan 21, 2006 at 07:55:11 PM PDT