If you still have any remaining shred of support for or trust in the Bush administration, and the news of North Korea having and testing nuclear weapons hasn't destroyed it, please allow me to recap events in the hope of demonstrating what a dangerously incompetent administration we have running this country.

First off, a quick aside. John McCain continued to embarrass himself and erode his support among independents today by criticizing President Clinton for failing to stop for all time North Korea's nuclear program. Two quick points to address that. First off, Johnny boy, old GW has been president for the better part of six years now. He and your Republican majority have been running the show and taking full credit every step of the way. It's a bit far-fetched to be pointing the finger at this point. Secondly, despite North Korea persisting with its program after agreements signed in Clinton's time, Clinton's plan did halt their program while he was in office. No new plutonium production, and no weapons were made while Clinton was in office. The failure is Bush's--it's not a transitional issue, but an issue well contained in his own time in office.

Now, onto that recap of events.

In September 2001, terrorists from Saudi Arabia attack the U.S.. Bush responds by sending our troops to invade Afghanistan and failing to capture either Osama bin Laden or the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar.

In his 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush first uses the phrase "Axis of Evil" to describe Iraq, Iran, and North Korea--three countries which have never attacked or presented an imminent military threat to the U.S..

In March of 2003, Bush sends troops to invade Iraq, a country with no connection whatsoever to Al Qaeda and no weapons program. In fact, its weapons program had been silent since the first Iraq war in '91.

By this time, it's a known fact that both North Korea and Iran are working on nuclear technology. Nuclear weapons programs are established in both India and Pakistan--two nations involved in an active military conflict--without U.S. blessing or oversight. No actions are taken against the latter two countries; indeed, Pakistan quickly becomes one of our primary allies in the "War On Terror", even though it's been selling its nuclear technology on the black market.

As for the former two countries, the Bush administration withdraws from any diplomatic efforts with North Korea and Iran, instead choosing a stonewalling approach that shrouds their programs in further mystery.

Fast forward to today, and let's look at how the "Axis of Evil" has been faring under Bush's steadfast watch. Iraq, a harsh dictatorship before we invaded, but also a stable, secular presence in the Islamic Middle East, has become a chaotic battlefield and breeding ground for terrorists. Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, completely absent from the country before our invasion, have established a strong foothold and have killed hundred of civilians and destabilized the country. Shiites and Sunnis are engaged in open warfare around the country. Shiite militias, trained by the U.S. and supposedly our allies, have suddenly started to openly oppose us, most notably in current bloody battles in Baghdad--the very first city we invaded three and a half years ago. Both civilian and military deaths are spiking and higher than they've been in some time.

And let's not forget that their formerly secular government is now a fundamentalist Islamic government, mostly Shiite. You know, the ones we supported Saddam Hussein in fighting all those years ago in Iran.

Speaking of Iran, under Bush's careful watch they've become the most powerful Arabic nation in the Middle East, forging strong ties with the new Iraqi government, with whom they were formerly tense enemies. They've also developed a program for nuclear power. With our military failing next door in Iraq (a much smaller and more easily invaded country than Iran, with a radically weaker military and further weakened by a decade of sanctions, and we're still struggling mightily with it), Iran can only be emboldened.

And now North Korea has a nuclear bomb. Something Bush said he wouldn't tolerate. Arguably the only really dangerously unstable dictatorship in Bush's book of bad guys, they've been rattling the nuclear saber the entire time Bush has been in office. Bush has refused to engage them every step of the way. Now, they have The Bomb. Guess that let-them-bow-before-us-before-we'll-acknowledge-them thing hasn't worked out so well for Bush. Or the rest of the world.

But it gets even worse. Donald Rumsfeld, our Secretary of Defense, was on the board of a company that sold reactors to North Korea six years ago. That's right. Our Secretary of Defense was involved in selling nuclear technology to North Korea. Set this one next to that classic photo of him shaking hands with Saddam Hussein, in the days when we supported his bloody rule, and then repeat it to yourself again:

This man is our Secretary of Defense.

This is really scary stuff. This is really dangerous stuff. These guys are incompetent or worse at everything they're trying to do, and they're failing us, and they're putting us all at risk. They've had six years to get things on the right track, and what do we have to show for it?

Iraq is in chaos, and run by Islamic fundamentalists. The Taliban have retaken half of Afghanistan, and their illegal opium production is at an all-time high. And while we've taken our collective eye off the ball, we now have active nuclear programs in Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and India.

How, in any way shape or form, have we become safer under the Bush administration?

I don't want to hear that this is a pessimistic, only-seeing-the-bad-news analysis. What is there to balance this out? Not only is the glass half empty, but it's poison in the glass. We've already drank half of it; when are we going to stop and say enough is enough?

Republicans have to be voted out of office this fall. Say what you like about Democrats; they've certainly played it safe and contributed to this mess. But they won't cause these kinds of messes. They won't get us into unnecessary wars. They won't stonewall the rest of the world, which will then go on and do the things we don't want them to do without our voice in the process. Compare Monica Lewinsky to two failed wars, close to 3,000 dead soldiers, page-sex cover-ups, nuclear weapons in North Korea, and all the other Bush incompetence, and just try saying we're better off now than we were then, without your stomach aching.

Somehow, some way, this has to stop.

Labels: Politics