THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

What are the Republican successes on National Security? Via Buzzflash we get the answer to the question. There are none. And a look at the destructive consequences of their miserable failures.

Bush and Republicans have not succeeded in a single national security-related endeavor. Indeed, everything they've done has made America less safe. That other nations maintain a healthy fear of our military might is vital to national security but, too, just as important is that world leaders respect American diplomacy and our leadership. Today, few nations take seriously our threat of force because they know we are bogged down in Iraq. Both North Korea and Iran have made a hobby of thumbing their noses at Bush's threats of force. And it would require a determined Sherlock Holmes-like detective to discover many global leaders who respect either America's diplomatic efforts, or our leadership.

That the United States has lost all respect within the international community cannot be denied. It is humiliating enough that a ranking member of the British government called the President of the United States 'crap', but it is all the more embarrassing and telling when the Chinese envoy tells the United States to 'shut up'.

'''It's better for the U.S. to shut up,' Sha said. 'Keep quiet. It's much, much better.'''

"It is better for the U.S. to shut up"? The President of the United States is "crap"? In what parallel universe do the people of America view the sum total of Bush and Republican national security failures and hear world leaders uttering such disrespectful remarks and still, they arrive at the conclusion that Republicans are strong on national security? For the love of all things good and merciful, on whose watch did 9/11 occur? When it comes to the myth that Republicans are "strong" on national security, what will it take for the American people to realize they've been sold a bill of goods?

Can we, as a nation, afford to see how much worse they can do?