anything more about this crap and Vietnam is hurting America by making sure the REAL ISSUES....LIKE WAR!....are being IGNORED with the Republican smokescreen upheld by a bunch of guys who have been holding a grudge about people speaking out against the Vietnam war....hell...they've had this personal grudge for over THIRTY YEARS......it has NOTHING to do with our CURRENT SITUATION.
REAL ISSUES OF TODAY:
REPORT SHOWS BUSH IGNORING CHEMICAL SECURITY
President Bush this week said, "We're going to do what's necessary to protect this country."[1] But according to a comprehensive new report, the Bush administration has not only failed to safeguard vulnerable terrorist targets at home, it has actively blocked government initiatives to safeguard the most dangerous materials that could be used in a terrorist attack.
According to the nonpartisan Working Group on Community Right-to-Know, the Bush administration has blocked an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiative to impose security measures for extremely hazardous chemicals stored at power plants across the country. As a result, some 3.5 million people living near these non-nuclear power plants continue to face the danger that a terrorist attack could send a cloud of toxic and lethal gas into their neighborhoods. The report also details how opposition from chemical manufacturers has derailed a bill in Congress, the Chemical Security Act, which would have required facilities using the most dangerous chemicals to consider safer technologies and use them where practicable.[2]
Since 2000, the chemical industry has donated more than $17 million to President Bush and Republican congressional candidates.[3] These companies have also given more than $6 million in soft money to the Republican National Committee.[4]
WASTING BILLIONS ON MISSILE DEFENCE
BUSH "LIVING IN THE PAST" ON MISSILE DEFENSE
President Bush this week said that "those who oppose ballistic missile system[s] really don't understand the threats of the 21st century. They're living in the past." He then claimed, "We're going to do what's necessary to protect this country."[1] But a look at the President's push for an unproven defense system aimed at preventing a Cold War-style attack while he underfunds counterterrorism/homeland security shows that he is the one whose policies are wholly outdated. It also shows that, in fact, he is not doing everything necessary to protect America.
The missile defense system the President is pushing is designed to shoot down Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) - a weapon experts agree posed a far greater threat to America during the Cold War. By contrast, today the threat of 9/11-style terrorism is far greater than that of an ICBM. A missile defense system does nothing to address that kind of terrorism. Additionally, nonpartisan congressional auditors this year found that the missile defense system was wholly unproven.[2]
Despite these facts, the President is pushing to spend billions on the system, while cutting funding for more pressing national security programs.
Specifically, he is pushing a massive 9% cut to the Nunn-Lugar program[3] -the government's central effort to protect loose nuclear material and prevent that material from getting into the hands of terrorists on the international black market. He has also drastically underfunded basic homeland security programs, including grants to first responders.[4]
To illustrate just how out of touch the President has been on national security issues, consider the summer before 9/11: As the White House received warnings of an imminent terrorist (not ICBM) attack, the Bush administration threatened to veto an urgent request to shift $800 million
from missile defense into critical counter-terrorism programs.[5] |
