Where's the Outrage?

If you had your eyes glued to the TV and you were taking notes, you probably still missed it. The mainstream media seemed not to want to cover any substantive discussions about President Obama, Russia and loose nuclear weapons. I must admit, I did not even think about loose nuclear weapons. Currently, I’m reading Ron Suskind’s book, The Way of the World, which discusses an incident in 2006, in which Georgian officials capture a two-bit criminal who is smuggling uranium!

Smuggling uranium? One of the things that the Bush administration talked about (all the time) was weapons of mass destruction. We had to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. In 2002, ”I don’t have any doubt that al Qaeda was pursuing nuclear, biological and chemical warfare capabilities. It’s not our judgment at the moment that they were that far along, but I have no doubt that they were seeking to do so.” This is what U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton told CNN.  What did the Bush administration do to secure loose nuclear weapons, especially in the former Soviet republic? I know, search your databanks. I couldn’t think of anything either.

In January 2008, Sam Nunn, Henry Kissinger, George Schultz and William Perry wrote an Op-Ed in the WSJ which stated, “In October 2007, we convened veterans of the past six administrations, along with a number of other experts on nuclear issues, for a conference at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. There was general agreement about the importance of the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons as a guide to our thinking about nuclear policies, and about the importance of a series of steps that will pull us back from the nuclear precipice.  The U.S. and Russia, which possess close to 95% of the world’s nuclear warheads, have a special responsibility, obligation and experience to demonstrate leadership, but other nations must join.” This is especially nice since Kissinger et al., were the ones that promoted the arms race three or four decades ago. But, the reasoning behind their recommendation is now becoming very clear. We can’t control every kilo of nuclear material. There is a bipartisan agreement in Congress to get rid of nuclear weapons.

Now for some more bone chilling realism. Where in Georgia did this uranium come from? South Ossetia. If that doesn’t sound familiar, it should. This was the region wanting to break away from Georgia during the 2008 presidential campaign. Remember John McCain declaring, “We are all Georgians now.”

South Ossetia is no bigger than Long Island. Yet in 2003, Georgian border guards caught another smuggler with 200 grams of weapons grade uranium. Now this is what bothers me. These are the two-bit criminals. We know that Russia has huge crime syndicates that are run by Al Capone types. If these nobodies can get their hands on weapons grade uranium then you know the big bosses sure can get their hands on whatever they want. Al Qaeda just needs to name the price and dirty bombs are going to be set off in a city near you. By the way, are the Georgia border guards better or worse than our American border guards? Because we know we only catch a fraction of the drugs that come into this country. Does Georgia just catch a fraction of the uranium is leaving their country?

In my opinion, President Obama set down and spoke with the Russian President Medvedev about these, loose nukes. This had to have been their number one priority. We cannot be serious about trying to stop the next terrorist attack without securing nuclear weapons. Forget the photo ops, the smiles and handshakes. If we can not secure nuclear weapons, none of that matters.

Tags: Al Qaeda, Bin Laden, Obama administration, WMD // View Comments