On This Date in Bush History 12/11: Big Threats, Small Actions

“Well done is better than well said.” Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1737

2001: President George W. Bush says today: “One former al Qaeda member has testified in court that he was involved in an effort 10 years ago to obtain nuclear materials. And the leader of al Qaeda calls that effort ‘a religious duty’ ... Together, we must keep the world’s most dangerous technologies out of the hands of the world’s most dangerous people. A crucial partner in this effort is Russia - a nation we are helping to dismantle strategic weapons, reduce nuclear material, and increase security at nuclear sites”.

Decisive talk from the president. Yet, in 2004, the Washington Post publishes the results of a Harvard study. That study states: “Less fissile material was secured in the two years after [9/11] than in the two years just before” and “Half the equipment dispatched to Russia nearly four years ago as a fast, interim solution [to secure nuclear materials] remains in warehouses”. This, despite Bush’s stated belief that the danger of weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons, falling into terrorists’ hands is the greatest threat we face. It seems odd, therefore, that in the wake of 9/11 the Bush administration would actually be securing less foreign nuclear material than had been done prior to 9/11.

It would also seem puzzling that President Bush, as his major initiative against terrorism, mobilizes the U.S. military at great expense to invade a country that inspectors had said, prior to the war, showed no evidence of possessing nuclear materials. Meanwhile North Korea and Iran were known to be developing their nuclear capabilities. While force is not the solution to every problem, it does seem odd that the country where the most U.S. military resources are being expended is non-nuclear Iraq.

“you disarm, or we will.” President Bush, October 5th 2002