At great risk

Well this makes me feel a lot better.

On Sunday, the Associated Press reported that, according to former 9/11 Commissioners Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, "[t]he U.S. is at great risk for more terrorist attacks because Congress and the White House have failed to enact several strong security measures." I had to wonder after reading this item just what our elected officials in Washington have been up to all this time - or at least the time they've actually spent working, and not campaigning, golfing, or clearing brush. And then, of course, it hit me.

They've been fightin' 'em over there so we don't have to fight' em here. And recklessly endangering us all in the process.

Confirming yet again that our inexcusable war in Iraq - and, to a large extent, our inept occupation strategy in Afghanistan - has nothing to do with the "war on terror", the AP continues:

[T]he government has stalled on other ideas, including improving communication among emergency responders and shifting federal terrorism-fighting money so it goes to states based on risk level.

"There is a lack of a sense of urgency," Hamilton said. "There are so many competing priorities. We've got three wars going on: one in Afghanistan, one in Iraq and the war against terror. And it's awfully hard to keep people focused on something like this."

Mr. Bush's trumped-up, unnecessary, irresponsible invasion and occupation of Iraq has exhausted our military, emptied our coffers, divided our people. It has needlessly killed thousands of our children, and has galvanized anti-American hatred. It has strained our collective will and sapped our individual strengths.

And all the while, our ports are still unsecured, our chemical plants remain unguarded, our first-responders continue to be underfunded. As Katrina demonstrated all too well, our government's level of preparedness for disaster is shamefully appalling. There has been no broad call for citizen involvement in civil defense, no demand for uniform disaster planning, no bi-partisan agreement to put only the best people in powerful and important decision-making positions.

Are you scared yet? Outraged? Convinced, finally, of what many of us have been saying all along about this President, his cronies, and his dangerous agenda? You'd damn well better be.

It's long past time to demand that this Administration and the Party in power get back to doing precisely what they keep telling us they're doing - protecting the American people. And if they are unwilling to address the real struggle against terror, then they must be removed from office at once.

After all, it's only our lives that are at stake.