National Security And Homeland Security

Robert P. Watson

The top national security issue facing us is the proliferation of nuclear weapons and materials. Russia has almost 20,000 nuclear weapons and enough nuclear material to make thousands more, while we must do a better job of securing, monitoring, and, where possible, eliminating nuclear programs in the former states of the Soviet Union, India, Pakistan, Iran, North Korea, and elsewhere.

We need cooperation among the nations of the international community with the U.S. in a leadership role. The previous administration simply not prioritizing nuclear non-proliferation and our monitoring program was moving at a snail’s pace. At current rates, it will take decades to inspect just the nuclear materials and programs of the former USSR.

Nuclear threats exist in Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and North Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is willing to sell enriched uranium and plutonium and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to the highest bidder. Iran is moving increasingly and disturbingly toward becoming a radical Islamic theocracy with a nuclear weapon. I have always maintained that Iran was more of a threat than Iraq. Iran was the larger, more powerful nation, had more advanced weapons systems and WMDs, was a known sponsor of terrorism, and had more credibility in the Islamic world, yet the Bush administration chose to invade Iraq rather than deal with Iran. Recently, U.S. and Saudi intelligence reports revealed that terrorist leaders and Saad bin Laden, son of the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attack, have been hiding in Iran. Likewise, both Russia and Pakistan are leaking nuclear materials and technologies on the illegal market.

I believe we must work with our allies on non-proliferation issues, demand that states stop sharing scientific information with Iran, offer Iran and North Korea WTO and trade benefits in exchange for abandoning their nuclear ambitions, and ask the UN and our allies to bring pressure – economic and otherwise – on these states. Tragically, the U.S. has harmed the international effort by violating nuclear non-proliferation and text-ban agreements during the Bush years. We must therefore immediately end our new nuclear testing and production programs, honor and strengthen nuclear treaties, and close loopholes in the current process that allow rogue nations to proceed with "civilian" nuclear programs. In short, we must once again lead.

We never should have invaded Iraq because Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 terror attack. We were, however, justified in invading Afghanistan because the Taliban regime was harboring terrorists and the planners of 9/11 and other terror attacks. However, poor decisions by our leaders in the days after the war let Osama bin Laden slip away. For instance, August Hanning, the top German spy, reported in the German press that Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders eluded American forces because they paid Afghan warlords and militias bribes larger than what we were paying them. This was echoed by General Tommy Franks, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan. I want to know why we "outsourced" the hunt for bin Laden to warlords.

Although American troops fought bravely and effectively, poor decisions by our leaders again after the fall of Baghdad and Kabul undermined the post-war peace. No one has contained Afghanistan’s opium production and the country has become an international narcotics state, in 2004 producing a record 5,445 tons of opium, over 17 times as much as next largest producer, the nation of Myanmar. Terror attacks are up worldwide, more than tripling from 2004 to 2005. In Iraq, the cost has been more than the billions of dollars spent and tragic loss of American lives, the war in Iraq has alienated our allies and served as a recruitment tool for terror groups worldwide. It is also costing us our honor as a nation and, unless we immediately disengage from Iraq and Afghanistan, we will lose the peace.

The war in Iraq has had the damaging effect of diverting our resources and attention from the real mission, which is to eliminate Osama bin Laden, work with our allies in hunting down terror cells around the world, secure the homeland, and prevent nuclear proliferation. While billions are spent and war is waged in Iraq, our homeland is vulnerable. Only a shocking 10% of the containers arriving at our ports are inspected, our borders are porous, and our water, nuclear, and chemical plants, our financial centers, tourist sites, and national landmarks, and our power and computer grids are not secure. To secure the homeland, we must bring the National Guard and Reserves home where they are needed, we must refocus the President’s spending away from incoming missiles to the more likely and immediate scenario of a "dirty" bomb being smuggled onto American soil in a suitcase, and we must cooperate with our allies in seizing financial assets of groups raising money for terrorists, sharing and reforming the intelligence process, and banning travel of terror suspects.

There is no military solution for Iraq, and we ended up functioning as an occupying army of 140,000. It is our patriotic duty to demand that our leaders disengage from Iraq and Afghanistan and turn their energies toward the real mission! Honor and victory in the war on terror can be ours, but they require an immediate change in policy and a change in leadership.

While our leaders were distracted by Iraq, other major national security threats have gone completely unaddressed including: China's thirst for energy, natural resources, and new markets; Russia's increasingly alarming resemblance of the old USSR; and global environmental degradation.