Soapbox

What Have you Done for me Lately?

I am puzzled by recent reports showing that while many American disagree with President Bush about Iraq, they favor him on issues of “security�. How in the world do these people define security? Apparently they think that swagger and bravado alone will do the job, because so far that it all George Bush has brought to the table.

The next time the administration raises the national alert status (which will happen as soon as there is a new scandal revealed or Bush takes a dip in the polls) I hope that some journalist somewhere who is still worth of the name will stand up and say:

“Mr. President, since there is an increased risk of terror attack on this country, can we assume that you are finally increasing the inspections of our container ports, where currently 19 out of 20 large containers that enter the U.S. are never inspected?

You’re not? Well then surely you are going to call for mandatory security increases at chemical and nuclear facilities? No?

Well, will you ask for a pay increase for the National Guard to help with recruitment, since so much of our Guard is over in Iraq instead of home actually guarding our nation?

Are you hiring more Arabic translators and at last making Osama bin Laden a priority again? Insisting on more security around the easily portable Russian “briefcase� nukes?
Increasing funding and training for our first responders?

Mr. President, I”m confused. Since you personally started a war that has killed thousands and actually increased terrorism, opposed the creation of the Department of Homeland security, and refuse to do any of these things to help prevent or respond to an attack, I have to ask, what exactly have you done to make us more secure?â€?

….Crickets…crickets…grass growing…