Posted on 09/06/2006 8:08:27 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 05, 2006
CONTACT: Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider 202-226-7616 Democrats Release New Report on Bush National Security Failures Third Way report makes clear dangerous cost of Bush Republican policies, need to change course
Washington, D.C.—With President Bush touring the country on a new public relations campaign designed to sell his national security policies to the American people, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, and Senator Thomas Carper today joined General Wesley Clark and Sharon Burke, Director of the Third Way National Security Project to release "the Neo Con," a new report analyzing the dangerous effects Republican policies have had on the security of the nation. Prepared by Third Way, the study is a damning indictment of Bush Republican failure and incompetence that has left America less safe five years after September 11, 2001.
The new report throws the national security failures of the Bush Administration and its Rubber Stamp Republican Congress into harsh relief. Shockingly, despite repeated rhetoric from the White House citing the new realities of the post-9/11 world, Bush Republican incompetence has left America vulnerable in an increasingly unstable world. Bogged down in Iraq with its military stretched thin, America now finds itself less able to fight and win the war on terror. Around the world, Afghanistan, Iran, and North Korea have grown more dangerous. Meanwhile, terrorist attacks around the world have rapidly multiplied.
“We took a hard look at the numbers,” said Burke, “and the numbers don’t lie – the Bush strategy is not working.”
With the five-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks fast approaching, the report serves as a sobering reminder that the President and his Republican Congress have failed to learn the lessons of that terrible day. In a study cited in "the Neo Con," 86% of National Security experts interviewed by the Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy magazine rate the world as more dangerous for the US and Americans; 83% disagree that the United States is winning the war on terror. A copy of “the Neo Con” can be found online here.
“The facts do not lie,” said Senator Reid today. “Under the Bush Administration and this Republican Congress, America is less safe, facing greater threats, and unprepared for the dangerous world in which we live. This new report is a stunning indictment of Bush foreign policy, and it makes a clear case for the new direction we need to keep America safe.”
“This report makes clear that the policies of the Bush Administration have failed to make the American people as safe as they should be,” said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. “It provides compelling evidence that the war in Iraq has weakened our military, hindered efforts to defeat terrorism, and diverted attention and resources from crucial security challenges. Anyone who reads the report will come to the inescapable conclusion: America needs a new direction.”
“The majority party in power fails to understand the basic concept of fighting terror: We can't dry up the wellspring of hatred which is driving terrorist recruiting by making more enemies than friends,” said General Clark, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander. “Their arrogance and incompetence prevents the powers that be from authoring the change in direction we need. The Democratic party offers America the best chance to turn things around and set a new course towards strategic success in the war on terror.”
“Democrats have been leading our nation in the battle for democracy for over a century,” said House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer. “From Wilson, to FDR, to Truman, to Kennedy to Clinton, Democrats have been holding the torch of freedom to light the way for other nations long before the Republican Party joined the fight. That is a tradition that we continue here today. This report details how President Bush and the Republican Congress have failed to make us as safe as we should be, and we hope that by pointing out these failures we can force a change in course.”
“The bi-partisan 9/11 Commission came through with specific recommendations to make America safe, and we still haven’t managed to meet those goals,” said Senator Durbin. “They continue to give this Administration failing grades when it comes to a communication network for police and fire fighters and emergency medical responders. They give it failing grades on the protection of our ports, the protection of chemical and nuclear facilities. As this new report makes clear, there is a lot more that needs to be done to make America safe. The lesson of 9/11 should be a reminder to Congress that we’ve got to get down to the business of making America safer at home.”
Said Senator Carper, “as this report by Third Way shows, President Bush’s policies have made us less safe, not more secure. Instead of playing politics with the war on terror and trying to score points against Democrats, the President needs to reach out to members of both parties and forge a new direction that will make the United States, and the rest of the world, a safer place.”
Five years after 9/11, the American people will no longer tolerate incompetent and failed Republican policies that put their security at risk, and they want a real change. Democrats are fighting to take this country in a new direction, and remain committed to the tough AND smart policies needed to finally give Americans the real security they deserve and demand.
I do not need an officious report. I have my own mind and can see with my own eyes. Under Clinton, we were attacked time and again and his legacy led to 911 soon after he left office. Under Bush (despite my disagreement with quite a few of his other policies), there have been no further attacks on our soil, or major attacks thereafter against our assets. We are killing islamic radicals by the tens of thousands and they are fighting our military on their own turf, not here.
The left and the DNC are the ones trying to pull thee wool over others eyes...but they shall fail. The American people are not as blind or stupid as they like to think.
Sheeeeezh! Talk about FEAR MONGERING!
The perfumed prince says we should try to make "friends" out
of the people who want to kill us. What a moron.
Ah, OK senator. Weren't you the one in front of all the news cameras who was bragging about killing the Patriot Act? Seems to me, that killing that was one of the worst thing the left has done against the war on terror. Senator Reid, why don't you STFU.
Oh, Harry Reid is on tape proudly proclaiming they killed the Patriot Act and a room filled with hate-America liberals clapping and barking like sea lions.
Permit a modification to one sentence... “Democrats have been leading our nation in the battle for "socialism" for over a century,” House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer "should have said."
desperate people do desperate things.
dims will stop at nothing to gain back power!!!!!!
The facts do not lie...
OK, I read the whole thing. What are the facts?
This thing is long on rhetoric and short on specifics
So, once again, the Dims have told us Bush is WRONG WRONG WRONG!
I skimmed through the release but saw nothing they plan to do?
I heard Reid yesterday saying they could *prove* BUsh's policies have failed, but again, no plan of theirs.
They cannot win on Bush is wrong. They will actually have to come up with something they would do.
You know, besides investigate Bushco and his henchmen, and frogmarching KKKarl Rove. ** eyes rolling **
Let's see. How many attacks on U.S. installations (not in Iraq or Afghanistan) have there been since 9/11/2001?
Zero.
To Nancy Pelosi: don’t forget that all terrorists and tyrants—Bin Laden, Amadinejad/Khamenei, Nasrallah, etc—support the Democrats.
Mrs. Pelosi, you better be glad that so far they've been too cowardly to go ahead and state their endorsement.
I'd like to kick the senator's @$$ every time I see that video. Typical dumbocrat, with all the others standing next to him and the applause after his chicken **** announcement.
Yeah, the facts don't lie....Democrats do.
I notice they somehow forgot to mention Jimmy Carter's name. A good proportion of our current foreign policy problems are the consequence of earlier Democratic presidents' foreign policy blunders. Without Jimmy Carter's mishandling of Iran in 1979, we wouldn't be worrying about Iranian nutjobs about to have a nuclear weapon.
I'm always amused whenever the Supreme Being (as his soldiers used to refer to him) lectures other people about being arrogant.
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