|
Nuclear Football Dropped
By G.W. Bush Administration
George W. Bush demonstrates just how little he actually
cares for United States when he refuses to name a legally required coordinator
for preventing nuclear terrorism. Congress passed the law that mandates the new
position.
There is no confusion. The legislation passed.
Bush has innumerable times used the “signing statement”
concept to trim away unwanted pieces of past legislation. That has not been
seriously challenged. It ought to be. But Bush chose simply to ignore this law’s
main thrust altogether.
That is not unexpected. Bush has thumbed his nose at
all sorts of laws. A monarch can do such things. Laws come from representatives
sent from throughout the nation to fill the Senate and House of Representatives.
To Bush, these officials are meaningless; they are window-dressing. Congress has
served as court jesters, nothing more.
Anyone watching the law-cobbling process over the last
decade can readily see that it is a straightforward deal: Vice President Dick
Cheney and cohorts decide what the nation needs and they enact it.
Bush comes in later as the mouthpiece. He would not be
involved in any actual drafting of law, that’s for eggheads and Bush is strictly
an action guy. That’s what he’s told by all his subordinates. He is the man in
charge.
Apparently, he believes it.
What is being held up now is a new nuclear terrorism
super-official – approved by both parties – who would gather up all the loose
ends of information and research regarding potential nuclear terror and put them
all together in one place. Nuclear control issues are scattered about the
Administration now. No one agency or person has the whole nuclear picture
squarely before them.
Mind boggling; the nation with the ability to blow up
more than half the world today has no organized, clear way of getting all the
nuclear knowledge that is needed to prevent any possibility of a thermonuclear
holocaust. Isn’t that just a tad disturbing?
Any major missteps in this realm could, of course, end the world as we
know it. Anything that monumental deserves maximum attention and careful
planning. This is the big one.
But the White House is letting it sit in an
Administration board room and gather dust. This law passed last year. Since then
it has gone nowhere. So the National Security Council declares now that the
White House will not create the job. Some congressional experts say this delay
amounts to a violation of the law. But they don’t make law anymore during the
Bush monarchy, so their complaints fall by the wayside.
End of discussion.
Now, responsibility for matters nuclear rests with the
Departments of Energy, Defense, State, and Homeland Security and it is not
cross-referrenced. These are three federal departments that have been at each
others’ throats for decades; in a way, ironically, they are supposed to contend
with each other, but not to the point where nothing is accomplished. On nuclear
matters, the nation must – always – speak with clarity, speed and unanimity.
One voice should have the microphone here.
America needs to be crystal clear on its nuclear
policies. Not surprisingly,
Bush is making it cloudy.
Sure he has only a few months left in office, and once
he’s out, the mantra is that everything can be corrected. That reasoning leaves
huge amounts of unprotected time here. Nuclear missteps could take only minutes
to unfold, and destroy civilization instantly.
No, time won’t fix the nuclear problem. Every moment
the various departments are ignorant of each other and their work creates the
potential for a disaster. Melding the various departments and authorities that
are involved with nuclear issues here and around the world makes perfect sense.
It even fits the Bush style.
Why does he reject it? Is it that legislators drew the
law and not the administration?
Whatever the reason, Congress needs to move – now – on
assuring that this largely outlaw presidency follows this legislation. Lives
everywhere are at stake.
By: WF
July, 2008
| 