Before they took office, they were repeatedly told terrorism would be the biggest problem the administration would face in foreign and military policy. Rice, Cheney and Rumsfeld wanted to expand Star Wars and focus on China and Russia and their briefers were repeatedly ignored. History for them stopped when Reagan left office and they came prepared to refight the Cold War.
12 days after taking office the Hart-Rudman Homeland Security Commission gave them a blueprint on how to counter terrorism and create a Department of Homeland Security. They decided to ignore this report and make their own decisions.
More than the absence of weapons of mass destruction or ties between Al Qaeda and Hussein, more than the loss of control in Iraq and the growing casualty rates there, more than the fractured international alliances and inability to build a suitable coalition for a pre-emptive war, more than the record-setting budget deficits or growing trade deficits, more than the lies about the true cost of a massive Medicare expansion, more than underfunding the national mandate for No Child Left Behind, more than the expansion of agribusiness subsidies, more than the flip-flop on steel protectionism, more than the aborted and misconceived plans to go to Mars or bulk-up steroids regulation, and surely more than the immediate capitulation on the Federal Marriage Amendment to include protections for civil unions… more than all of this – combined – the Administration's we-never-need-advice rejection of the Hart-Rudman homeland security assessment, and its blueprint for how to prevent attacks on our homeland, is sufficient and demonstrable proof of the dangers of an Administration that listens only to itself.Members of the White House and Capital Hill Republicans also repeatedly attempted to shut down the program to secure Russian Weapons of Mass Destruction. "Parts of the administration do not really care if the programmes are shut down because they have always been sceptical of their value."
We are still a long way from reaching a higher level of homeland security through structural reform. But our government handed the Bush Administration a map and a flashlight on their 12th day in office for how to get there. That Bush at first refused to pick them up, or even notice them, testifies to his myopia. That he continued to ignore the aid and advice of the Hart-Rudman commission after the 9/11 attacks testifies to his reluctance to put the country ahead of his own politics.
Of course, there is also the entire Iraq thing instead of focusing on the war on terror....
This post has been floating around in my drafts since last October. It isn't really new, just part of my continued outrage that this administration is dangerous to national security. While they always talk about national security they always place politics and contracts for cronies ahead of it. They are always fighting old wars and ignoring new real threats. In my opinion, they are just a collection of incompetent out-of-date cranky old man and conservative suck-ups.
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