Mr. Cheney, Whose Side Are You Really On?
Posted on December 30, 2009 - Filed Under Blog
Former VP Dick Cheney, has joined the chorus of Republicans attacking President Obama on various fronts. Some are saying he took too long to respond to the recent attempted attack on an airliner. For his part, Dick Cheney, is now saying that Mr. Obama “is trying to pretend we are not at war.” Mr. Cheney has taken advantage of the heightened news environment following the attempted bombing of an airliner to condemn the President for sending 5 alleged 9-11 terrorists from Guantanamo to New York City for trial as his efforts to close the p-o-w camp there continue.
Not that it matters, but the procedure of releasing prisoners from Guantanamo, began with the administration of George W. Bush, and not with Mr. Obama. It appears that’s how some of the guys who are now planning the ongoing attacks against the U.S., got to Yemen. Because the Bush Administration let them go. As for criticizing Mr. Obama for waiting too long to make a statement about the recent attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight, the fact is that Mr. Obama waited three days. Mr. Bush, waited six days before issuing a statement about shoe bomber, Richard Reid. If Mr. Cheney and his friends are serious, if they really believe we’re “at war,” then they had better start putting the country’s needs ahead of their petty party politics.
Beyond the political game playing, disgusting though it may be, is another and perhaps larger issue. According to the Air Traffic Controllers Association at any given moment there are some 5000 planes in the skies over the United States.
“On any given day, more than 87,000 flights are in the skies in the United States. Only one-third are commercial carriers, like American, United or Southwest. On an average day, air traffic controllers handle 28,537 commercial flights (major and regional airlines), 27,178 general aviation flights (private planes), 24,548 air taxi flights (planes for hire), 5,260 military flights and 2,148 air cargo flights (Federal Express, UPS, etc.). At any given moment, roughly 5,000 planes are in the skies above the United States. In one year, controllers handle an average of 64 million takeoffs and landings.” -NCTA
More than 28,000 commercial flights on an average day in the U.S. Internationally, scheduled airlines carried 1.5 billion passengers last year.
Of course the nation’s leaders need to do everything they can to prevent fanatics with bombs from getting on our airliners. However, the question is: Will anything short of strip-searching each and every passenger be completely effective against the terrorist threat? Are we at a point where we’re kidding ourselves into thinking this problem can be “fixed?” Or are we in a new world environment, where we had better get used to a whole new reality?
The terrorists are here. They’re probably not going away, at least not in the near future, and we are just going to have to live with the fact that no security system is absolutely foolproof. Every time we react with what appears to be panic or confusion to an attempted attack, every time one political party goes after another for its failure to achieve perfection in security, every time our national leadership appears to be divided, confused or fearful, it only lends strength to the terrorist cause.
Our enemy in this fight is serious. It’s time for everybody to stop bickering, backbiting and playing for political advantage and get back on the same team.
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The “bickering, backbiting and playing for political advantage” has become a serious issue. Many people are so sick of it that they are turning to the Independent party or simply considering themselves independent voters. Both the Republicans and Democrats have put off reasonable citizens with their short-sided argumentative attacks on each other.