Security? Really?

In case anyone hasn't gotten the memo yet, here's another reason why Bush and his party have not made our country a whit safer with his war on terror.

For a moment, let's forget our differences over the war in Iraq. We don't even need to discuss whether it was a good thing or not, who the insurgents are, etc.

Let us merely focus on George Bush's repeated assertion that we have to take the fight over there, so that they won't bring it to us here.

The budget for next year (2006) for protecting American seaports, railways, subways, bridges, tunnels, busses and energy facilities is 600 million dollars. So far, we've spent that much twice each week on the war in Iraq.

If last week's bombings in London proved nothing else, it proved that al Qaeda is not a one-front organization. A "sleeper cell" that's spent time getting itself established and under cover isn't going to blow that cover just to run back to Iraq to attack us there.

Assuming the conspiracy theorists are not right and there really is an al Qaeda, we have a huge problem on our hands. We're spending hundreds of billions of dollars on a war in Iraq, but can't scrape together more than 600 million for actual homeland security?

Truly, we have our priorities straight.

Liam.