This piece gets the award for most important issue of the day. Among all the rest of the insanity of the day, this one stands out in my mind.
Charging that the Bush administration has moved too slowly to protect the nation from the threat of nuclear terrorism, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry Tuesday called for securing hundreds of tons of nuclear weapons and materials in the former Soviet Union in just four years.With a backdrop of huge ships off-loading containers, Kerry proposed a worldwide ban on the production of fissionable material -- enriched uranium and reprocessed plutonium -- used to make nuclear weapons. He called for a broad international coalition to verify such a ban but said such alliances have been "shredded."
In the two years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Kerry said fewer nuclear weapons were secured in Russia than were secured in the two years before the attacks. At the pace the Bush administration is pursuing he said it will take 13 years to safeguard Russia's 600 tons of nuclear material.
Fact of the matter is that terrorists did not have to wait for Iran or Iraq to produce nukes, or for North Korea to decide to start shipping their finished product. All they had to do was go to a former province of the USSR and find a nuclear scientist with connection to the military. The state of Russia's stockpile is what we should be worrying about. God forbid the terrorists actually get their hands on WMD, or even bring it into the country, odds are that the source will be some part of the former USSR.
Quite pathetically, in my opinion, we get this response.
Kevin Madden, Bush campaign spokesman, said Bush has made stopping the spread of nuclear weapons a top priority, noting his drive to get Libya to renounce nuclear and chemical weapons."President Bush's leadership and resolute stance against the spread of weapons of mass destruction has made the world safer," Madden said.
One only has to look towards North Korea and Russia to know we aren't "safer" yet. Iraq, Iran, and Libya are all just small fish in a big pond. It's the big boys that already have the toys.