Sometimes I just don't know about the current administration. They seem totally mired in the past. What does it take? A 747 crashed into their living room? A dirty bomb detonated under their bed?
Now, we hear that the Bush administration wants to not only continue building missiles to defend us against the highly improbable attack from North Korea, but they want to increase the budget.
A very large group (49 to be precise) of our retired US generals and admirals have signed a letter to the effect that this money ($10.2 billion) would be better spent on securing the homeland against more likely terrorist attacks.
I have a friend who has seen these bases being constructed in Alaska over the last few years (since Bush ascended to the throne). We know from press reports that Condi Rice was going to give a speech on Sept. 11 about how missile defence was the highest priority for the administration.
It seems that they just haven't given up on the idea. Do they know something we don't or are they simply mired in the Cold War thinking that led them to ignore the threat of Osama bin Laden?
Will there be any consequences for an administration that lets the country down so badly? Sometimes I long for the British system so that our MPs could just vote them out of office this week and right the ship.
Posted by artandscience at April 5, 2004 07:37 PMAs Richard Clarke and others have pointed out, these guys are Cold Warriors who don't realize the Cold War is over. They have waited all their lives and careers to build these whizbang systems to defend an enemy that no longer exists.
The old quote from JM Keynes seems apropos: "when the facts change, sir, I change my mind. What do you do?"
This whole mess underscores how have elected officials with some military experience can be beneficial: for one thing, they're unlikely to risk putting others in harm's way if they've been there themselves, and for another, they might have a better understanding of how these campaigns are won and lost.
Talkingpointsmemo has some interesting stuff today on how the armchair generals really believed the Iraqi public would just welcome the troops as liberators and would take over humanitarian and security duties right away. We see how badly they understood what they were getting into on that score.
Posted by: paul at April 5, 2004 09:51 PM