NYT: Democrats See Security as Key Issue for Fall

[DeepModem Mom]

Democrats See Security as Key Issue for Fall
By CARL HULSE
Published: August 15, 2006


Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Web site frame grabs.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 — After being outmaneuvered in the politics of national security in the last two elections, Democrats say they are determined not to cede the issue this year and are working to cast President Bush as having diminished the nation’s safety....

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Seeking to counter White House efforts to turn the reported terrorist plot in Britain to Republican advantage, Democrats are using the arrests of the suspects to try to show Americans how the war in Iraq has fueled Islamic radicalism and distracted Mr. Bush and the Republican Congress from shoring up security at home. They say they intend to drive that message home as the nation observes the coming anniversaries of Hurricane Katrina and the Sept. 11 attacks.

But they are not waiting. A video Monday on the Web site of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee showed footage of Osama bin Laden, referred to an increase in terror attacks, highlighted illegal immigration and pointed out the nuclear aspirations of Iran and North Korea.

“Feel safer?” it concludes. “Vote for change.”

In another example, Representative Harold E. Ford Jr., a Democrat running for the Senate in Tennessee, issued a statement Monday noting that the administration shut down a C.I.A. unit dedicated to pursuing Mr. bin Laden....“The president told us that the British attacks are a stark reminder that the nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom,’’ Mr. Ford said, “yet his administration has dismantled the very infrastructure that is responsible for catching those terrorists.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/washington/15dems.html?hp&ex=1155614400&en=b5c5857dd0b0c75e&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[liberaldemocrat7]

1. National security.

[welshTerrier2]

2. well, i hope they have a REAL agenda on security

this line is great: "the war in Iraq has fueled Islamic radicalism" ... of course, it's not necessarily clear that the Dems, once the US invaded Iraq, would have done anything in a way that would have prevented more Islamic radicalism ... i hope they really plan to back up this statement but it's not clear how they will ... will remain in Iraq another year or more, as the Dems seem to be calling for, somehow NOT fuel more Islamic radicalism? far too many Dems have already been pounding on the war drums about Iran ... that will just NOT make us more secure ...

the REAL reason we have less security in the US is because of our global adventures ... we topple sovereign governments ... we bribe ... we use propaganda ... we show disrespect to foreign cultures ... we exploit resources ... we do lots of bad stuff ... have people in the Middle East always hated Americans even way back to old Ben Franklin's day or have we perhaps done something to anger them? REAL security will come about when we stop doing things to anger them ... any pretense that we can "be really, really macho" and show those bad guys that we mean business is doomed to failure ... it might make a nice, even effective, political spectacle but it will NOT solve the problem and it will not help the country ...

another plank in a good security platform has to be to make substantial cuts in the defense budget ... we should support absolutely every necessary defense program we can afford; wasteful spending, as IKE properly counseled, is nothing but abusive corporate welfare and only serves to weaken the country ... these resources should be diverted to education ... our educational standards, even for fundamentals like basic literacy, are lagging far behind many other countries ... we cannot possibly hope to remain secure if our workers and our economic engine fail to produce the wealth we'll need to ensure our safe futures ...

and finally, we need to understand that building alliances are critical and that not every problem can be solved with ultra-high-tech weapons systems and lots of young people with guns and tanks ... the cost to the country in terms of blood and treasure is just not sustainable ... we should be the architects of peace and alliance building in the world instead of the hawkish, militaristic empire that we currently are ... if anyone really cares about security, that's the way to go ...

so the Democrats will get their upper hand on security this November ... they certainly will do better than the insanity we've seen from the neocons ... and some will feel good as political gains are derived from this ... in the end, though, the REAL issue isn't who makes political gains on the security issue but rather who REALLY makes the country secure ... right now, while i'm more than glad for any political progress we can make, i'm concerned that neither party has the script we really need ...