Last Thursday, President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney gave national security speeches on the same day. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the timing was a coincidence — at least on the President’s side.
Cheney did not say anything profoundly new, nor did he think of additional concerns over Obama’s opposition to harsh interrogation techniques. He merely repeated his tired, unsubstantiated conviction that after Sept. 11 “the serious way (the Bush Administration) dealt with terrorists from then on, and all the intelligence (they) gathered in that time, had everything to do with preventing another Sept. 11 on (their) watch.”
While it’s true that no terrorist attack has occurred on American soil since Sept. 11, the policies of Cheney and the Bush Administration have not, by any means, kept America safe.
Upon embarking on a nearly solitary battle against al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Cheney and the Bush Administration decided to invade Iraq, a country of no threat to our nation beyond the fact that the dictator was insane. So are Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-Il and the leaders of Hamas: Khaled Mashaal, Ismail Haniyah and Mahmoud Zahar.
Cheney and the Bush Administration also left behind a legal eyesore concerning enemy combatants detained without the right to habeas corpus, which the Obama Administration has been forced to repair.
Of the legal issues surrounding detainees and the situation at Guantanamo, Obama said, “We’re cleaning up something that is, quite simply, a mess — a misguided experiment that has left in its wake a flood of legal challenges that my Administration is forced to deal with on a constant, almost daily basis and it consumes the time of government officials whose time should be spent on better protecting our country.”
Their careless detainment of enemy combatants without habeas corpus rights and their reckless handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are well-known and hardly bear repeating. But their derelict policies and negligence toward the safety of the American people extend further.
The Bush Administration left behind a lunatic to rule North Korea, whose delirium and derangement were displayed for the world to observe over the Memorial Day weekend when he fired off several short range missiles and tested a nuclear bomb. The Los Angeles Times reported that the nuclear blast was “slightly larger than the previous test but far smaller than those from the first atomic bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the New York Times reported that North Korea had previously explained their intention to conduct a second underground nuclear test, “citing what it called Washington’s ‘hostilities.'”
The fact that the North Korean government focused the threat of their recent nuclear test on America, and even that they tested the nuke on Memorial Day, did not wound my pride any more than it caused me to turn my eyes expectantly to a solid discussion concerning what to do about the rogue nation.
We’re talking about a nuclear weapon in the hands of a madman. Given the Bush Administration’s fervor surrounding Saddam Hussein’s suspected weapons of mass destruction, the proof of weapons of mass destruction should illicit helpful, experienced advice from Dick Cheney whose primary focus these past weeks seems to have been my personal safety.
When the hope of advice from Cheney proved fruitless, I turned my bright, hopeful, “Yes We Can” eyes to the Obama Administration and the world response. Surely, my home team would have an answer for what to do with Kim Jong-Il.
But while I am left to wonder if my refrigerator is lead-lined like the one Henry Jones Jr. used to survive the nuclear bomb in Indiana Jones 4, the United Nations Security Counsel is saving the date to convene — yet again — to strongly condemn the behavior of North Korea. And what’s more, Obama made a speech merely condemning the actions himself.
The world’s actions thus far are similar to a parent inquiring whether her rambunctious 2-year-old would please discontinue slamming her new iPod Touch against the cement. The toddler will not stop, despite polite requests and regardless of any explanations concerning the importance of the iPod and how much it costs. You have to take the device away from the toddler.
As long as the UN simply asks North Korea’s leader to discontinue nuclear proliferation and testing, whether it be Kim Jong-Il or his son Kim Jong-Un who is next in line for the presidency, they will simply continue to defy the requests until real intentions are placed behind the words.
War should never be a first response, but North Korea has refused to discuss its nuclear weapons program with the United States and the world. The UN’s resolutions don’t seem to have enough teeth to draw the North Korean leader out of dangerous isolation, so I want to see what NATO can do. NATO has a world arsenal to back up its threats, and its military campaign to stop Slobodan Milosevic was highly successful in the 1990s.
It’s essential that as the world dialogue develops regarding the North Korean defiance, the United States does not begin to discuss its role in ending Kim Jong-Il’s rule in unilateral terms. We must learn, not from Dick Cheney’s advice but from his grave mistakes.