Are We Safer?

Are we safer now than before 9/11? Who knows? My guess is yes and no.

Two distinct lines played out in the wake of the British breakup of the most recent airline plot. I watched with pride as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described the Department’s actions in response to what appeared to a real, deadly, and gigantic plot to kill trans-Atlantic passengers.

Chertoff was professional and apolitical in tone and in his description of what the United States’ response was to the events and its cooperation with his U.K counterparts. The Secretary and the Department have come under tremendous pressure and criticism for internal failures to communicate and coordinate and for obvious failures in real events such as Hurricane Katrina. Unlike the leaders of the Departments of State, Justice and Defense, Chertoff did not spin the event for political or bureaucratic advantage.

On the other hand politicians of both parties reacted to the foiled plot and to the defeat of Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman in completely partisan manners and sought advantage in November. The Republicans said the plot proved that they were on top of the terrorism situation, we are at war with an implacable foe, and the win by Ned Lamont shows that the Democrats are weak on national security and sending the wrong message to the terrorists.

The Democrats, naturally enough, found the opposite answers in these same tea leaves. The plot shows that we have not turned the corner on terrorism, that the Iraq War is creating more terrorists than we are eliminating, and any erroneous messages being sent to those who would harm us are the result of a failed administration policy of dealing with the problem and not by Connecticut’s voters.

Had we found WMD or a connection between Saddam’s government and al Qaeda, the Republicans would have won yesterday’s food fight with ease. But we didn’t find either and the Republicans find themselves on the defensive. Iraq was not working with al Qaeda, but the war is now certainly generating both terrorists and even greater hatred for America.

The war is also not going nearly as well as the administration said it would. I think Iraq is a lot closer to civil war than the administration will admit, and it is now the commonly held view that the leaders are doing their damnedest to hold on until the end of Bush’s term and leave it to the next president to withdraw our troops as the situation becomes obvious, making it possible for those slinking into the sunset to claim the debacle was the result of the Democrats failing to stay the course.

Unfortunately for the administration and its neocon supporters and drivers of both parties, the Lamont victory is not being perceived by the majority of Americans as the liberal wing of the Democrats effort to derail a successful national policy but rather an intervention in a failed and foolish diversion from the true war on terror that all Americans fully support. Thus no matter how cynically Dick Cheney proclaims that Joe’s defeat is a victory for al Qaeda, the vast majority of Americans - including a growing share of Republicans - are convinced that Iraq was a foolish blunder that is undermining the war on terror and the safety of our citizens.

Bush, Cheney and Republican Party leaders are less and less successful in painting the Democrats weak on national security. The American military fatalities in Iraq are fast approaching the number of deaths from 9/11, and the public no longer sees a direct connection between the two situations.

The Republicans won the last two national elections by playing the strong on national security card, but the public now sees the flaws in the argument; the most blatant hole being the canard that we’ve chosen to fight them in Iraq so we won’t have to do it here. The plot in Britain shows that our enemies continue to plot to kill Americans in our own planes in our own air space. Obviously, the Iraq War is not stopping plotting outside the war zone. Case closed!

Theorists in this country and Britain believe that the television pictures from Iraq and Lebanon are generating more jihadists than we’re eliminating in the various wars across the globe from Lebanon to Russia, China, and the Southwest Pacific.

Sixty percent of Americans now see the Iraq War as a mistake. This figure is growing daily and will continue to increase as November approaches. It is no wonder that that our leaders look more weary every day. They are stuck with a failed policy, and no matter how well intentioned they were, they have failed and must be turned out of office by the voters.

We are safer through the better performances of Homeland security, the FBI, the CIA and others, but we are endangered by our national policy in dealing with the terroists in Muslim lands. Yes and no!

Blog on!

Wild Bill