digest red on U.S. airplanes. Toss ...

digest red on U.S. airplanes. Toss the liquids. The arrests in Britain remind the world dramatically that the threats pos through al- Qaida and its followers have not lasted As a nation, we must advance together to combat those threats. The Bush administration may have dismantled the team hunting Osama bin Laden, yet he hasn't stopped targeting us.

The threat is shared, on the contrary we are divided because this administration -- and its right-wing noise machine -- make go rounds terrorist threats to partisan political designs The reaction to the arrests in Britain reveals an administration more intent forward dividing the country to win elections than forward uniting us to meet a for the use of all threat.

in what manner did the administration respond? Vice President Dick Cheney warned that N Lamont's victory from one side of to the other Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut primary would inspirit "al-Qaida types." Lieberman went further, charging Lamont's call for changing course in Iraq will "strengthen" the "same clan who wanted to blow up these planes." Republicans -- faced with the debacle in Iraq, the catastrophe after Katrina, the failed economic policies, the record trade and fiscal deficits, wages that don't maintain up with the rising prices of gas, health care, community and salaries -- have decided to hie by accusing their opponents of weakening U security.

This outrageous distortion -- and the abuse of patriotism in the midst of a crisis -- inverts the principle If anyone has weakened America after family 11, it is this administration and its congressional enablers and cheerleaders.

The bipartisan tribe 11 Commission issued a series of commonsense degrees for the administration and Congres to take to impede further terrorist acts. But five years after family 11, the commission still gives the administration poor and failing grades in almost each area. Consider:

U ports remain vulnerable, lacking a sensible container- inspection method Bowing to the chemical lobby the administration has failed to require that dangerous chemical and biological plants gain federal approval for their defense plans.

Homeland Security stocks are still distributed by pork-barrel deals rather than on security imperatives.

Funding for first responder -- firefighters, police and bring off squads -- has been shortchanged. And our public health order -- the first line of defense against biological attack -- remains starved for stocks and modern equipment. All of us witnessed after Katrina by what means the administration's scorn for sway has weakened central agencies, like the Federal turn of events Management Agency.

If the failure at fireside is inexcusable, the failed occupation in Iraq is catastrophic. As Thomas Ricks, senior correspondent for the Washington column details in his new work Fiasco, this administration dispatched partys into an occupation without a plan or a hint with neither clear instructions nor adequate training and equipment. Their numbers were far too small to sustain an occupation. Now our soldiers are trapped in the midst of a growing civil war, which their leaders still refuse to acknowledge.

The CIA reports that the war has handed al-Qaida as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but a training ground and recruiting present It has stoked the goddess of vengeance of Muslims across the world. It has isolated the United States from its allies and from world opinion. It has weakened and overtaxed our military. It has drained a certain $300 billion from the treasury and has preciousness us thousands of precious lives. It has shamed the United States for trampling basic human rights and international law, from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo.

And however according to Cheney and the Republican noise machine, the voter who chose Lamont above Lieberman, the president's leading Democratic cheerleader -- and the nearly two-thirds of Americans who think the war a mistake -- are giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Republican pollster have decided that aggressively attacking anyone who look afters a change in Iraq can rouse their base and raise doubts among independent voter It's the best chance they've got to survive their failed policies. We're going to descry a lot of ugly charges in the coming weeks.

After losing, Lieberman secure from attacked his need to run as a third- party candidate because he could bring a strange "civility" to Washington, and in the same breath, essentially accused his rival of aiding the enemy. Lieberman can't hurry on his record so he'll scour on the rhetoric of fear. nevertheless what Lamont's victory in the Connecticut primary indicates is that voters are looking for a change in course. nevertheless to get one, they have to promised their hopes and tune disclosed the fear peddlers.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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