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Seals Says National Security Is Not A Partisan Issue

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

WILMETTE, Ill. — President Bush used his primetime speech yesterday, the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., to attempt again to justify his failed policy in Iraq rather than unify the nation mourning the worst attack on American soil, said Dan Seals, Democratic congressional candidate in the 10th district.

“The President used his address from the Oval Office to advance a partisan message,” Seals said. “And surprisingly, despite the evidence that there was no link between Iraq and the 9/11 attack, the president again last night made more comparisons between al-Qaida and Iraq.”

The Bush Administration and the Republican-controlled Congress need to do more than just say the U.S. is winning the war on terror when the facts on the ground – including escalating violence in Afghanistan and Iraq and the increased nuclear threat from Iran – don’t provide proof, Seals said.

The most recent report from the Pentagon shows the situation in Iraq has worsened, with the number of attacks against Americans and Iraqis at its highest since the beginning of the war. More than 2,700 Americans have died in Iraq.

“It is the administration’s failed policy in Iraq that has enabled the country to become a breeding ground for terrorism,” Seals said. The hunt for Osama bin Laden, who ordered the 9/11 attacks on the U.S., is “stone cold,” military leaders were quoted saying this week.

Also troubling, Seals said, is that pro-Taliban militants are being permitted to operate freely in North Waziristan, an area in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.

“The war in Iraq is a diversion on our war on terrorism. Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks,” Seals said.

What the country needs for a true national security policy, Seals said, is less partisan posturing and more bipartisan cooperation focused on a national security plan based on implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, increasing our investment in intelligence surveillance and eliminating the conditions that encourage terrorism.

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