In the dawning days of real congressional oversight led by Democrats, two contrasting news events on consecutive days could not serve as a better illustration of why Bush cannot keep us safe.
325 agents from 85 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies missed two boatloads of actual Cuban migrants during an training exercise. The drill was designed to model a circumstance in which a mass-migration of Cubans to Florida shores occurs in response to the supposed demise of Fidel Castro.
Twenty-six Coast Guard cutters, seven Navy ships, four helicopters and a dozen small boats took part in the exercise, all of which missed boats that dropped off 21 Cuban migrants at a popular nudist beach and left 19 others on another beach a few hours later. Both vessels escaped.
Border Patrol Spokesperson Steve McDonald was unabasshed by the oversight, saying "We're not embarrassed at all. It's not uncommon for them (Cubans) to have landings," while Coast Guard Rear Adm. David Kunkel, director of the Homeland Security southeastern task force adopted a "look over there" strategy by stating, "It's a mass migration plan in general. It doesn't have to be from Cuba."
This is not the first time something like this has happened. Not only could the 22 smuggled Chinese immigrants that arrived at the Port of Seattle about a year ago have been Al-Qaeda, there is a well-considered body of expert opinion that makes the case that these 22 are likely the tip of the iceberg, and that we simply don't know about (or hear about) the vast majority of such incidents.
Just the day before on March 7, U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) introduced an amendment to the 9/11 Commission bill (S.4), which would create a designated Homeland Security Trust Fund to pay for the implementation of all the 9/11 Commission recommendations, invest in local law enforcement, and make other critical homeland security upgrades.
So despite failing grades in 9/11 Commission security audits (the final one of which appears here), in the end, Bush fails to take these measures seriously. Those of us in the security community may be less charitable than most, pointing out that not only does Bush demonstrate security incompetentcy, but exhibits little desire to take real measures to improve security. Why are the foundational recommendations of the 9/11 Commission only being heeded now, and only because of pressure from a responsible and accountable Legislative branch led by Democrats? Bush could have breezed through the necessary funding with his Republican Congressional "base" in years past, but failed to do so.
Instead, Homeland Security is cancerous to this day with incompetent Brownian cronies, and is still headed up by Michael Chertoff, who escaped the purge he earned for his own role in the Katrina debacle.
My collegues in the security community are baffled by the claim that Bush must be doing a "good job", because, seemingly, no events have visited US shores since 9/11. Katrina wiped out an entire populous American city and killed or impovershed tens of thousands, was patently preventable, and happened on Bush's watch. In point of fact, Bush took actions with regards to withdrawing support for the levees that are likely to have exacerbated the problem.
Besides, Bush is said to be lucky in poker too.