We don’t need this:
The Bush administration’s failure to shut down al-Qaida and its bungled efforts to rebuild Iraq have fueled the insurgency and made America more vulnerable to a nuclear attack by terrorists, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said in his latest screed against the president’s war policies.
Kennedy, in remarks prepared for delivery to George Washington University students Monday, said that by shifting attention from Osama bin Laden to Iraq, Bush has increased the danger of a ”nuclear 9-11.”
I agree with the general proposition that a number of the Bush administration’s decisions have made us more vulnerable to terrorism. And this might even include nuclear weapons, as Kennedy asserts. But unless Kennedy has specific intelligence pointing this direction, we don’t need any more people ratcheting up the national fear factor. The terrorist-related rhetoric in this campaign is spiraling out of control, as many other important national issues are ignored. I’ve criticized Bush/Cheney ’04 for some of their comments, and the same fair-and-balanced guideline applies here. Unless someone has evidence that al Qaeda has a nuclear project in the works, I think we’ve heard enough about mushroom clouds for one campaign.