Code red
on U.S. airplanes. Toss the liquids. The arrests in Britain
remind the world dramatically that the threats posed by al
Qaeda and its followers have not ended. As a nation, we must
come together to combat those threats. The Bush administration
may have dismantled the team hunting Bin Laden, but he’s
not stopped targeting us.
The threat
is shared, but we are divided because this administration
– and its right-wing noise machine – turns terrorist
threats to partisan political purposes. Once more, the reaction
to the arrests in Britain reveals an administration more intent
on dividing the country to win elections than on uniting us
to meet a common threat.
How did
the administration respond? Vice President Cheney emerged
to warn that the victory of Ned Lamont over Joe Lieberman
in the Connecticut primary would embolden “al Qaeda
types.” Joe Lieberman, embittered over his loss, went
further charging that Lamont’s call for changing course
in Iraq will “strengthen” the “same people
who wanted to blow up these planes.” Republicans –
faced with the debacle in Iraq, the catastrophe after Katrina,
the failed economic policies, the record trade and fiscal
deficits, wages that don’t keep up with the rising prices
of gas, health care, college and salaries – have clearly
decided to run by accusing their opponents of weakening U.S.
security.
This
outrageous distortion – and the abuse of patriotism
in the midst of a crisis – actually inverts the
truth. If anyone has weakened America after September
11, it is this administration and its congressional
enablers and cheerleaders.
We
ought to be very sober about this. The bipartisan September
11 Commission issued a series of common sense steps
for the administration and congress to take after September
11. But five years after September 11, it still gives
the administration poor and failing grades in almost
every area. Consider:
U.S.
ports remain vulnerable, with the failure to set up
a sensible container inspection system. Bowing to the
chemical lobby, the administration has failed to require
that dangerous chemical and biological plants gain federal
approval for their defense plans. Homeland security
funds are still distributed by pork barrel deals rather
than by security imperatives. The administration even
recommended – with a straight face – that
funds for New York and Washington be cut, since they
are apparently not priority targets. (What were they
drinking?) Funding for first responders – firefighters,
police and rescue squads – has been short-changed.
And our public health system – the first line
of defense against biological attack – remains
starved for funds and modern equipment. And all of us
witnessed after Katrina– “you’re doing
a great job, Brownie” – how the administration’s
scorn for government has weakened central agencies,
like the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The administration claims to be worried about terrorists
but sat on its hands as the National Rifle Association
got the conservative majority in Congress to allow the
ban on the sale of assault rifles to expire.
If
the failure at home is inexcusable, the failed occupation
in Iraq is catastrophic. As Thomas Ricks, senior correspondent
for the Washington Post, details in the new book, Fiasco,
this administration dispatched troops into an occupation
without a plan or a clue, with neither clear instructions
nor adequate training and equipment. Their numbers were
far too small to sustain an occupation. Now our soldiers
are trapped in the midst of a growing civil war, which
their leaders still refuse to acknowledge.
That
war has had clear consequences. The CIA reports it has
handed al Qaeda a training ground and a recruiting boon.
It has stoked the fury of Moslems across the world.
It has isolated the U.S. from its allies, and from world
opinion. It has weakened and overtaxed our military.
It has drained some $300 billion – headed to a
predicted $1 trillion – and thousands of precious
lives lost, maimed or scarred. It has shamed the U.S.
for trampling basic human rights and international law,
from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo.
And
yet according to Cheney and the Republican noise machine,
the voters who chose Ned Lamont over Joe Lieberman,
the president’s leading Democratic cheerleader
– and the nearly two-thirds of Americans who think
the war is a mistake are giving aid and comfort to the
enemy. These smears are likely to get worse. Republican
pollsters have decided that aggressively attacking anyone
who seeks a change in Iraq can rouse their base and
raise doubts among independent voters. It’s the
best chance they’ve got to survive their failed
policies. We’re going to see a lot of ugly charges
over the next weeks.
After
losing, Joe Lieberman defended his need to run as a
third party candidate because he could bring a new “civility”
to Washington, and in the same breath, essentially accused
his opponent of aiding the enemy. Lieberman can’t
run on his record, so he’ll run on the rhetoric
of fear. But what Ned Lamont’s victory in the
Connecticut primary shows is that voters are looking
for a change in course. But to get one, they have to
vote their hopes and tune out the fear peddlers.
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