Oh nooooooo! Terrorists are plotting to kill us! With airplanes and bombs and suiciders homiciders! And that goes to prove that only President Bush and his faithful minions the Republicans in Congress can save us from those soft on terrorism, cut and running Democrats.
Well, as the saying goes, NOT EXACTLY.
It seems every time some terror plot is revealed, and the threat levels are raised, we hear the same old story from the Republicans spinmeisters and their stenographers in the corporate media. And we get the same cowardly lackluster response from Democratic officials: Bupkus. Terror alerts always seems to terrorize the Dems, and put them on the defensive. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
What Democrats should be doing is going on the counterattack, and it really isn’t that difficult, if Democrats would simply repeat a few of the following, easy to understand, talking points every time the get face time before a microphone or television camera:
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9/11 Happened on the Bush and the Republicans’ Watch.
* The Democratic Clinton administration and Richard Clarke warned Condi Rice that Al Qaeda’s was the greatest threat to America’s security. She ignored them.
* Bush was handed by the CIA a Presidential Daily Brief on August 6, 2001 titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US.” Bush told the CIA briefer who handed it to him: “All right. You’ve covered your ass now.”
* The Democratic Clinton administration foiled Al Qaeda’s Millenium Plot to bomb LA’s international airport on New Year’s Day, 2000. Bush foiled the attack of some nasty sagebrush on his vacation at his ranch in August, 2001.
Bush and the Republicans’ strategy of “Fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” isn’t working.
* Bush and the Republicans failed to capture Osama Bin Laden and eliminate Al Qaeda’s network in Afghanistan and Pakistan so he could invade Iraq, a country with no connection to the 9/11 attacks.
* Bush lied about Saddam’s WMD and Al Qaeda connections so Americans would support an attack on Iraq, allocating resources to that war that could have been used to fight Al Qaeda.
* Bush’s war in Iraq is only creating more recruits for terrorist organizations, and providing them a training ground where they can kill and maim American troops.
Bush and Republican Party’s War on Terror policies have made us less secure, not more.
* Terrorist attacks have increased worldwide since Bush took office.
* Despite Bush’s war in Iraq (or because of it) new terrorist cells continue to grow worldwide including in the US and Britain.
Bush and his Republican Congress has cut funding for, or ignored, known risks to our Homeland Security.
* Our ports are not secure, and Republicans have refused to fund measures to increase the security of American ports.
* Republicans gutted funding for first responders (police, paramedics, hospitals) to terrorist attacks, and emergency preparedness.
* Republicans failed to provide security from terror attacks to America’s vulnerable chemical nuclear plants, and water supply systems and hazardous materials transport.
* Bush and the Republicans ignored the threat of liquid explosives smuggled aboard airline flights, despite knowing of the risk for years.
Bush and the Republicans have ignored the threat to airlines from unchecked cargo aboard passenger flights, despite a GAO study regarding the risk, and the measures needed to prevent it.
Democrats have been the party working to improve our National Security, not the Republicans.
* Democrats pushed for the creation of an independent 9/11 Commission, despite initial opposition by Bush and Republicans in Congress.
* Democrats adopted the 9/11 Commission’s proposals to reform US intelligence services, proposals blocked by Republicans.
* Democrats have proposed bills to increase funding for homeland security, bills which to date have been blocked by the majority Republicans in Congress.
* Democrats urged Bush and Republicans to use diplomacy and the good will created after 9/11 to create a multilateral approach with our allies to fight and defeat the terrorists responsible for 9/11. These recommendations were rejected by Bush and the Republicans who persisted in their failed strategy of a unilateral American military response in Iraq, a country not connected to the 9/11 attacks.
* Democrats support the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to limit the expansion of nuclear weapons to more countries. Bush and the Republicans have wrecked the NPT and effectively abandoned non-proliferation as a foreign policy goal, making the US less safe from future nuclear attacks from countries like North Korea.
* Democrats support increasing Veterans’ Benefits. Bush and Republicans have cut them.
Well, you get the idea. Instead of accepting the charge that Democrats are soft on terrorism they should throw it back in the face of the Republicans. Considering their record of failure that shouldn’t be hard to do. All it takes is the will by Democratic candidates and officials to stand up for themselves.
Republican charges that Democrats are soft on terorism
Republican National Security Failures