National Security Conversations We Won't Have Before November 2nd

Without Reservation
A biweekly column by Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.)
posted 12 Oct 04
National Security Conversations We Won't Have Before November 2nd
Military Weekly
http://www.militaryweek.com/kk101204.shtml
There are some topics relating to American national security that neither candidate will address before the election. Or afterwards, for that matter.
The Bush team is exhibiting a fiery and vocal hostility not seen from an administration in thirty years, since Nixon announced his resignation in 1974. In the end, Richard Nixon was personally cognizant that his bad decisions and illegal actions had rendered his continued service both politically impossible and hurtful to the United States. Ironically, this image of Richard Nixon reminds us of a gentler, more honorable Republic.
Bush-Cheney hostility and tough talk on defense matters should not be confused with a real concern for national security. Bush and Cheney have undeniable evidence from their own people that their public rationale for the Iraq adventure in occupation and political puppetry – protecting America from WMD and terror – was false and politically fabricated. Yet Bush and Cheney seem robotically content to repeat those false rationales ad nauseum. War in Iraq to secure America was never more than hostility and tough talk, and it remains so today.
Clearly, vocal belligerence is not courage. Bush and Cheney seem deathly afraid to publicly explain exactly why we are occupying Iraq.....