WASHINGTON, D.C. –Americans are getting ready to go to the polls and the story is that we are angry, frustrated and feeling economically pinched. All true, no doubt. But we would like to make the case that along with voting our economic concerns and interests, voters should keep in mind that our country remains at war and the larger security trends are not, at the moment, running in our favor.
Iran is loading fuel into the Bushehr reactor despite whatever setback the Stuxnet worm created, and it is offering a bounty on dead American soldiers in Afghanistan. Syria and Turkey have declined the carrots offered by the United States in exchange for scaling back relations with Iran. Turkey invited Chinese pilots to have an “air exercise” in which Turkish pilots flew U.S. aircraft. And China, aside from asserting broad rights in the Pacific and supporting North Korea, recently supplied eight million yuan ($118 million) in military supplies and equipment to the Lebanese Army – while the Lebanese government comes closer to becoming a vassal state of Iran and its Hezbollah army. Venezuela is considering nuclear capabilities and the Organization of American States still won’t let Honduras back in, while Nicaragua’s Sandinista government proceeds to violate the Nicaraguan constitution and pack the Nicaraguan supreme court in order to subvert elections and retain power. Not to mention Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Sudan is trying to renege on the election planned to offer the southern part of the country the opportunity to secede, and violence will likely be the result regardless of whether the election is held or abandoned; Yemen, Algeria and Morocco are all seeing increased al Qaeda activity; Mexico’s drug wars are our problem as well as theirs; the “reset” with Russia has not slowed Russian activity in Iran or stopped it from selling cruise missiles to Syria. The Palestinian Authority wasted the nasty fight between the United States and Israel over “settlements,” and is no closer to a state, and Hamas has begun executing “traitors” in Gaza.
The Administration is planning major cuts in the U.S. defense budget.
Closer to home, the FBI arrested a man who “cased” the Washington subway system and provided plans and ideas to a person posing as an al Qaeda agent. The would-be bomber is a naturalized American citizen from Pakistan who talked to his interlocutor about ways to maximize the number of people to be killed. More than 60 people have been arrested in the United States this year on charges having to do with their intention to commit acts of terrorism – including the man who wanted to be the Times Square bomber.
On Friday, CNN reported that investigators responding to a tip found suspicious packages aboard two planes bound for the United States. The packages were addressed to synagogues and Jewish Community Centers in Chicago. One plane was flying from Yemen to Chicago and was searched in London on Thursday night. The other was searched in Dubai. Although the packages tested negative for explosive materials, one shown to the media contained wires and a circuit board. The event led to heightened inspections of arriving cargo flights in Newark and Philadelphia and on a UPS truck in New York. Authorities are focusing on flights coming from Yemen into the United States, according to a CNN source. American ports remain largely vulnerable to imported mayhem.
Americans generally “vote their pocketbooks,” particularly during mid-term elections, and the President is responsible for foreign political and military relations. But Congress is a co-equal partner in governing – the House is where spending bills originate, and the Senate has an “advice and consent” function.
It would be wise for Americans to cast their votes Tuesday with more than the economy in mind, and to expect their elected representatives to govern that way as well.
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Bryen is senior director of security policy of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Her column is sponsored by Waxie Sanitary Supply in memory of Morris Wax, longtime JINSA supporter and national board member.