Contributors

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

FLUNK YOU!!!

Well well well. I guess someone else thinks the way I do. Actually, 5 Republican and 5 Democrat someone elses.

For months I have been writing and yelling about how inept the Bush Administration has been at fighting the War On Terror. I have stated repeatedly that there are other problems in the world that need our attention, not Iraq, and that he has made a mockery of our nation's defenses. I have pulled out what little hairs I have left on the top of my head when people who support Bush say that our country is safer because of him.

So, you think we are safer, huh? You think everything is just dandy that we have a "MAN" in the White House and not weenie liberal like Gore or Kerry? Bush is tough as nails and taking the fight to them, right?

(Loud buzzer sound) WRONG! Would you like to try your hand at Double Jepoardy where the stakes are really high?

The 9/11 commission released their report card last week and the grades were so bad that if the White House and the Republican controlled Congress were sons bringing home these notes they'd be on their way out to the fucking shed to get whupped. I can't begin to express to you the outrage I felt when the government received on "F" in the following categories:

Improve airline passenger pre-screening
Provide adequate radio spectrum for first repsonders
Allocate Home Security Funds based on risk
Declassify overall intelligence budget
Coalition standards for terrorist detention

Are you fucking kidding me? 4 years have gone by and we still haven't improved our airline screening? Great. Just great. And the first repsonders thing? Well, after New Orleans, I guess we all know how well federal first responders communicated.

And all this talk about how we have to beat the shit out of terrorists to save lives? Well, this commission said that that tactic has done more harm than good. It has actually given pause to countries that would've shared important intelligence with us. Super! Way to go, Don!

Hey, you think they F's are bad? How about the D's?

Maximum Effort by US to secure WMD
Support Reform in Saudi Arabia
Critical infastructure risks and vulnerabilities assessment
Checked Bag and Cargo screening
International collaboration on borders and document security
Incentives for Information sharing
Government wide information sharing
Privacy and Civil Liberties oversight
Guidelines for sharing personal information
Scholarship Exchange and library programs
Support secular education in Muslim countries
Intelligence oversight reform

You know what? Let's forget about everything but the first two. There are so many fuck-ups here that we should probably just focus on two of them.

The effort by the United States to secure WMDs has been a "D" level effort. Read that last sentence again, please, because I think you need to fully understand it. OK? According to the 9/11 commission, countering the greatest threat to America's national security is still not the top security priority of the President and Congress.

Help me out, conservatives. This is a bi-partisan group and they are saying that our leadership is not focusing on the most dangerous threat to us in our nation's history. Something is seriously not right here folks. Thomas Kean, the REPUBLICAN chair of the commission said that he is "frustrated by the lack of a sense of urgency in addressing these concerns."

He goes on to say, "While the terrorists are learning and adopting, our government is still moving at a crawl. Many obvious steps that the American people assume have been completed have not been. Our leadership is distracted."

In fact, some of the harshest critics are Republicans. James R. Thompson, former Illinois governor, said, "The American people ought to demand answers. Why aren't our tax dollars being spent to protect our lives? What's the rationale? What's the excuse? There is no excuse."

And what about reform in Saudi Arabia? Nah. Can't be that we are dropping the ball there. We all know what buddies we are with the Saudis. Just like at our beloved president holding hands with the Crown Prince Abdullah. You don't think that he would soft pedal the country that produced 15 of the 19 hijackers do you? What possible reason could he have to keep the kid gloves on? Hmm. Let me think about that one for awhile.......

To be fair, we did get one A. It was for disrupting the terrorist financial network. Well, our leadership does know a lot about money, that's for sure!

You know, people ask me all the time what I would do differently. They say that instead of bitching I should come up with a list of things I would do differently. Well, look no further than the items above. Let's start with those things, at least, for crying out loud. Can't we do better than a "D" or a "F" when it comes our nation's security?

Look at these people to the left. Look at their faces. These are the families of the victims of 9/11. This is going to be you or your family someday because we have a group of people running our country that are more concerned with protecting and growing corporate wealth than protecting and nuturing our children. These families of the victims of 9/11 can't believe that 4 years and a lot of bullshit later we are still right back where we were on Sept 10th. They can't believe that our government has failed to act on many of the commissions most important recommendations.

They can't believe that our leadership got 18 F's or D's in such an important undertaking!!

Do you know what I can't believe?

I can't believe that there are people out there defending the leaders of this country and their policies. I have never been more embarrassed and mortified in my life. What a fucking travesty!

And people are mad at Bush for waiting 7 minutes on Sept 11th to move from his chair? How about 4 years and counting!!??

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The idea of other people thinking like you is a little more than I can stomach, in large part because your idea of providing constructive criticism is stating "we should improve airline passenger pre-screening". I tried that once here at work. After days and days of brainstorming, I finally concluded that for our company to improve its bottom-line we should increase revenue. I marched right into our CEO's office and told him so. Still waiting for the recognition I'm sure I'm due for such keen insight.

So I guess I'll have to approach this from the perspective that there are others who think along the same general lines as you do. (There, that's better.) Especially since I'm actually going to partially agree with you.

Some of these failures are downright shameful. The radio spectrum and home security fund allocation issues are a disgrace. Clearly a great deal more can be done in the areas of securing infrastructure and high-risk targets.

I don't put much stock in the others, for various reasons. Your buddies in the ACLU aren't helping any with the airline passenger pre-screening issue. Baggage and cargo screening, as well as intelligence sharing, have markedly improved. That's not to say there isn't yet room for improvement. And, frankly, I don't even understand how one could be graded on "Support Reform on Saudi Arabia" and "Support secular education in Muslim countries". D's and F's in these areas, without consideration for the importance or circumstances of the situation, don't mean much to me. (I won't comment on what I perceive to be your bizarre fixation on the hand-holding thing.)

Being a supporter of the continued efforts in Iraq, I can only offer that I would expect that a great deal more energy would have also been exerted toward some of these very achievable goals. I have no problem personally concluding that the Bush administration has failed in the areas I mentioned above. Any business would have reacted to such failures by firing those responsible. Perhaps the same should happen here.

Anonymous said...

"Just what makes that little old ant, think he can move that rubber tree plant? Nobody said that ant, can't, move a rubber tree plant. Cause . . . he's . . . got . . ., high hopes, he's got, high hopes, he's got, HIGH APPLE PIE, IN THE, SKY HOPES." Yada, yada, yada.

Nice job with all the cool quotes and photo attachments used to strengthen the points. Seriously, I thought I was reading MsNBC. Personally, I love that Bushie has a boyfriend with lots, and lots of oil - even the tree-huggers need gas to get to the picket lines. And the sobbing 911 families? - don't you need permission first?

So, when do we get the good news? You know, with all the roadside bombs, and body bags, corruption and christmas, and cocolate eating, and now this; got me feelin' a little down these days. Any suggestion as to how long is it suppose to take to overhaul national security in the wake of unprecedented trajedy and worldwide political upheaval(who's killing who notwithstanding)? 1 year? 5 years? 50 years? Yea, we are playing some catch-up here and it would be nice to not see F's and D's. And some of this pre-dates the current executive by the way. Too bad that executive was also a bit "distracted." Details, details.

Don't get me wrong; I'm pleased that this commission exists and that a "bushy-do" list has been created. It's just that I'm not too sure it's worthy of all the drama, swearing, and photo attachments. Even if we throw every effort into raising the grades from D's to A's within a year's time and 200 billion later, I still can't imagine feeling safer. Would a 3.0 be good enough? - does it have to be straight A's? Seems to me that even with straight A's, any kook could launch an SMG tipped with anthrax into any elementary school, anywhere, anytime. Were "kooks with fertilizer bomb thingy prevention" one of the listed priorities? They covered the sharing of library books . . .

As for defending the country's leaders and their policies, it will take a little more than the endless "sky is falling" hysteria to shake my support for the executive, no matter what party is in power. Personally, I'm too busy making a living to worry about all the minutia. Thanks for enlightening me on the endless negative; sometimes it leaves me wondering, however, if given equal time and weight, how much positive progress could be found. Include a picture of Don holding a puppy will ya?