Guarding Against Every Terror Risk Would Bankrupt U.S.,

[spindrifter]

Chertoff Says

By ERIC LIPTON
Published: September 13, 2006

WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 — Congress and the American public must accept that the government cannot protect every possible target against attack if it wants to avoid fulfilling Al Qaeda’s goal of bankrupting the nation, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate committee Tuesday.

Osama bin Laden, Mr. Chertoff said, has made it clear that scaring the United States into an unsustainable spending spree is one of his aims. In a 2004 video, Mr. bin Laden, the Qaeda leader, spoke of “bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.”

“He understood that one tool he had in waging war against the United States was to drive us crazy, into bankruptcy, trying to defend ourselves against every conceivable threat,” Mr. Chertoff said at a hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “We have to be realistic about what we expect and what we do. We do have limits, and we do have choices to make.”

The direct reference to Mr. bin Laden echoes what is now a week’s worth of tough talk by the Bush administration about him, a move Democrats call a politically motivated effort to refocus the nation, and its voters, on the war on terror instead of the troubled conflict in Iraq.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/washington/13chertoff.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[movonne]

1. So will having unending wars...

[serryjw]

2. What HE is saying is

we can't protect the Homeland only Cheney's retirement.Now really, which is more important?

[sandnsea]

3. That's OUR sacrifice

The troops are making theirs, we're supposed to make ours by paying for security instead of gobbling up billions of dollars of tax cuts.

They just have a lame talking point response for every blessed thing they fail to do.

[Solly Mack]

4. So if America can't sustain needed programs it's Al Qaeda’s fault?

lolololololol

So when Bush guts a needed program, it's not Bush funneling money to his cronies...it's Al Qaeda’s strategy?

"Osama bin Laden, Mr. Chertoff said, has made it clear that scaring the United States into an unsustainable spending spree is one of his aims"

Isn't that how conservatives claim "Reagan won the cold war"? So is Chertoff saying Bin Laden is emulating Reagan? (LMAO)


Sounds like Chertoff is laying the foundation for the next big excuse...

[LynnTheDem]

5. But we GOTTA kick the current #1 safest-from-terrorist-attack nation OUT

of that #1 spot!!!

We can be just like the current #1 least likely country to be hit by a terrorist attack, ONLY BETTER!!! bush is trying!
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/BUSINESS/08/19/global.terror.biz/index.html

[lumberjack_jeff]

6. "Cut and run" Chertoff. n/t

[zreosumgame]

7. as opposed to the 7 TRILLION already bankrupting us?

[Art_from_Ark]

8. You took the words right out of my mouth

When are we as a nation officially bankrupt? If being 7 trillion dollars in debt does not qualify as "bankrupt", what does?

[OneBlueSky]

9. um . . . the U.S. is already bandrupt . . . fiscally AND morally . . . n/t

.

[GeorgeGist]

10. Rubbish: Maximum Security is cheap...

just look at these prices
http://shopping.msn.com/Prices/shp/?itemId=544893964