Progressive Talking Points 1/27/06

State of National Security

National Security is sure to figure greatly into the President’s State of the Union speech next week, in which he will no doubt take credit for successes in Iraq and on the national security front. However, the fact is, four years after 9/11, the administration has failed to adequately protect the homeland, Osama bin Laden is still on the loose, al Qaeda is expanding globally, violence rages in Iraq and the America military is stretched to the breaking point.

• Our homeland is still not secure. Almost two years after the 9/11 Commission gave its report on the state of our nation’s security and steps that needed to be taken, the administration received failing grades from the Public Discourse Project. Thomas H. Kean, former chair of the 9/11 Commission, said that homeland security is "not a priority for the government right now.” Only 6 percent of national security spending is devoted to homeland security, and as Hurricane Katrina showed us, first responders still lack the crucial communications apparatus they need to operate during an emergency.
  
  
• The United States Army is stretched thin. 2005 marked the first year the Army missed its recruiting goal since 1999, and the third year the Army National Guard has fallen short. Despite President Bush’s promises to fully support our military, his policies have strained the all-volunteer military, turning the Army into a "'thin green line' that could snap unless relief comes soon," according to a recent Pentagon report. Furthermore, soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are dying and being injured because they lack the body armor they need.
  
  
• The administration does not have a strategy for success in Iraq. The administration’s Iraq policy is failing on many fronts. More than 500 Iraqis have died since the December 15 elections, and since the invasion began in March 2003, 2,239 U.S. troops have died and 16,420 have been injured. Iraqis are suffering economically, too – a new study shows that one-fifth of the Iraqi population lives in poverty, up since the 2003 invasion. Political upheaval is also reaching a boiling point, with the Shiites threatening to unite with the Kurds and exclude Sunnis from political power, which would be a disaster for Iraq and a serious blow to any effort to build a sustainable democracy. As the New York Times reports, “[l]eaving [the Sunnis] out of the government could very well prompt them to turn away from democratic politics again, and give the insurgency a fresh shot of energy."