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2007 Resolutions for Bush Administration
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Richard Clarke, former national coordinator for counterterrorism who consistently warned about terrorist groups not associated with governments, wrote an article which could be summarized as some points for the Bush administration to adopt as New Year Resolutions.
He charges the administration with being so taken with "buck fever" over the Iraq war, that they were distracted from major national security issues. They have focussed on one issue, Iraq. He points to the other hot items:
1. Global warming. We may have reached the point of no return, while the Bush administration has squeezed out a reluctant statement that the problem needs more study and then turned its back.
2. Russia plays petro-politics while Condoleezza Rice, the logical person to address the issue, has ignored the problem. If we don't look at it, it isn't there.
3. Latin America, our nearest neighbors, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua all have anti-U.S. leaders. Our relations with Mexico have devolved to tightening immigration and border controls.
4. Africa. Darfur's agony is spilling into Chad. HIV/AIDS and wars are ravaging a whole list of countries--Chad, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Congo, Liberia. Our military commitment to Iraq and Afghanistan have precluded any assistance to U.N. peacekeeping efforts.
5. Arms control, specifically biological weapons, nuclear testing. The Bush administration ignores the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. North Korea, Iran, Pakistan can act with impunity, restrained only by the EU community and other Asian nations. Like Pilate, we have washed our hands.
6. War on drugs? What a laugh. With the occupation of Afghanistan and the military hangup in Iraq, heroin is king.
7. Afghanistan. Like the Russians before us, and the British before them, the U.S. is learning from experience what they could have learned from a history book. Afghanistan is an intractable problem, narcotics are a mainstay of the economy, and the Taliban runs the country still. Pakistan's efforts are half-hearted because Pakistani leaders have their own problems to deal with and a hostile relationship with India, which divides the country into two far-flung sections.
Meanwhile, 4000 U.S. service personnel have died for nothing in Iraq.
He charges the administration with being so taken with "buck fever" over the Iraq war, that they were distracted from major national security issues. They have focussed on one issue, Iraq. He points to the other hot items:
1. Global warming. We may have reached the point of no return, while the Bush administration has squeezed out a reluctant statement that the problem needs more study and then turned its back.
2. Russia plays petro-politics while Condoleezza Rice, the logical person to address the issue, has ignored the problem. If we don't look at it, it isn't there.
3. Latin America, our nearest neighbors, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua all have anti-U.S. leaders. Our relations with Mexico have devolved to tightening immigration and border controls.
4. Africa. Darfur's agony is spilling into Chad. HIV/AIDS and wars are ravaging a whole list of countries--Chad, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Congo, Liberia. Our military commitment to Iraq and Afghanistan have precluded any assistance to U.N. peacekeeping efforts.
5. Arms control, specifically biological weapons, nuclear testing. The Bush administration ignores the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. North Korea, Iran, Pakistan can act with impunity, restrained only by the EU community and other Asian nations. Like Pilate, we have washed our hands.
6. War on drugs? What a laugh. With the occupation of Afghanistan and the military hangup in Iraq, heroin is king.
7. Afghanistan. Like the Russians before us, and the British before them, the U.S. is learning from experience what they could have learned from a history book. Afghanistan is an intractable problem, narcotics are a mainstay of the economy, and the Taliban runs the country still. Pakistan's efforts are half-hearted because Pakistani leaders have their own problems to deal with and a hostile relationship with India, which divides the country into two far-flung sections.
Meanwhile, 4000 U.S. service personnel have died for nothing in Iraq.
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