Depression turns to anger

Last night I posted on depressing news out of Iraq. Today, that depression turns to anger. Read on.

If Bush really does think he is the "best candidate" to protect America, then it's no wonder that he said the other day that America's complete safety is "up in the air". David Sirota points out Bush's failure and hypocrisy all at once:

The Wall Street Journal gives more details to how President Bush three times rejected military plans to kill Abu Musab al Zarqawi before the Iraq war. Notice this part of the article in which it now is clear Bush refused to go after one of the world's most deadly terrorists because he was trying to pass the same kind of "global test" he has attacked Kerry over. Also, he didn't want to damage his pre-determined efforts to invade Iraq...

Also on Bush's list of things to fear? How about terrorists with 380 tons of high powered explosives?

The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly 380 tons of powerful conventional explosives - used to demolish buildings, produce missile warheads and detonate nuclear weapons - are missing from one of Iraq's most sensitive former military installations.

The huge facility, called Al Qaqaa, was supposed to be under American military control but is now a no-man's land, still picked over by looters as recently as Saturday. United Nations weapons inspectors had monitored the explosives for many years, but White House and Pentagon officials acknowledge that the explosives vanished after the American invasion last year.
Still looted as of last Saturday. We've been in the country for over a year now, and we still haven't figured out a way to guard highly powered explosives.

On this issue, Kerry came out swinging:

"George W. Bush, who talks tough -- talks tough -- and brags about making Americans safe, has once again failed to deliver," Kerry said. "After being warned about the danger of major stockpiles of explosives in Iraq, this president failed to guard those stockpiles where nearly 380 tons of highly explosive weapons were kept. Today we learn that these explosives are missing, unaccounted for and potentially in the hands of terrorists. Terrorists could use this material to kill our troops, our people, blow up airplanes and level buildings."

Kerry added, "Now we know that our country and our troops are less safe because this president failed to do the basics. This is one of the great blunders of Iraq, one of the great blunders of this administration. The incredible incompetence of this president and his administration has put our troops at risk and put our country at greater risk than we ought to be."

The Bush camp response? I've seen two of them. One is that this is a sign of Kerry's weakness.

"John Kerry has no vision for fighting and winning the war on terror, so he is basing his attacks on the headlines he wakes up to each day," said Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for the Bush campaign.

So this is Bush's October surprise? To screw things up so badly, that when Kerry points them out, it keeps him off message? They claim John Kerry has no vision, when Bush failed to have the foresight himself to guard 380 tons of high powered explosives? Two monkeys and a football probably could have run this thing better.

The other is the same thing the Bush team has done for months - claim the administration has done enough, while not doing all it could:

White House spokesman Scott McClellan played down the threat posed by explosives missing from the Al Qaqaa military installation. He said there was no threat of nuclear proliferation, and preferred to concentrate on weapons destroyed, not those lost.

``We have destroyed more than 243,000 munitions,'' he said. ``We've secured another nearly 163,000 that will be destroyed.''

In Bush's reality, I guess that's enough to make sure our troops are safe. 280 tons of explosives that we failed to guard isn't that big of a deal, then. I have no idea what I was worried about.

*UPDATE* Josh Marshall points out a third response, that the Bush administration wants to find out what went wrong.

The president wants to determine what went wrong.

This reminds me of when I wanted to know why my Palm Pilot stopped working after I dropped it in the bath tub.

Doesn't this capture Bush's entire presidency?

The thing happened more than a year ago, his administration has taken active steps to cover it up and now that the truth finally comes out, he 'wants to determine what went wrong.'

The idea of accepting responsibility for anything is simply alien to the man. He doesn't even have the good grace to scam us by finding a scapegoat to pin the blame on.