Sunday, September 23, 2007

Nuclear Warhead Mishap Further Vindicates the Conservative Self-Fulfilling Prophecy that Government Does Nothing Well

Republican control of government has lead to the total mismanagement of FEMA and the Department of Veterans Affairs in the past. Now we can include the Air Force and the Defense Department to the growing list of government agencies that the Bush Administration is intent on running into the ground.

The conservatives preach that government screws everything up; and, whenever Republicans take control, it is almost like they are hell bent on proving that principle by letting everything go south. The latest troubling system breakdown is the August 29 incident in which the Air Force chain of command experienced "security failures at multiple levels, thus allowing six cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads," which were not missed for an entire day, to be flown from North Dakota to Louisiana.

Those warheads had the equivalent destructive power of 60 of the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima in WWII. It would seem that the flight path would have taken them precariously close if not right on top of our own state. That is too close for comfort.

With government FUBAR we usually get conservative calls to farm the jobs out to corporate interests to "reform" the system instead of simply demanding that this administration get off its lazy ass and exercise the needed leadership and oversight of the flawed departments to make sure that we avert tragedy. But we have seen how well turning military responsibilities over to private corporations works.

The answer is simple: we should demand that our elected officials actually lead rather than looking for someone else to sell their responsibilities to. Whenever they deny their responsibilities it is time for them to go.

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