Bush, on Sept. 30, at the first presidential debate:
“I agree with my opponent that the biggest threat facing this country is weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terrorist network. And that’s why proliferation is one of the centerpieces of [my] multi-prong strategy to make the country safer.”
Bush has spoken in favor of “cooperative threat reduction programs” funded under 1991 legislation sponsored by Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) and then-Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) [which would help secure loose nuclear materials]. He has also sought to reduce their budgets. [Bush’s] 2005 budget request would cut the Defense Department’s efforts to secure foreign nuclear stockpiles by $41 million, or 9 percent.
[…]
[Robert L. Gallucci, dean of the Georgetown School of Foreign Service and a classified consultant to the CIA and Energy Department laboratories], who held arms control posts under presidents from Gerald Ford to Clinton, said he finds himself “on the edge of saying really shocking things.”
“If tomorrow morning we lost a city, who of us could have said we didn’t know how this could happen?” he said. “I haven’t felt like this in all the years I’ve been in government or the nine since I’ve been [out]. I am — I don’t want to say scared, because that’s not what I want to project, but I am deeply concerned for my family and for all Americans.”
Anyone who’s supporting Bush because he makes them feel safer just isn’t paying attention.