What A Novel Idea

The Bush administration is actually going to work with other nations to solve the global challenge of how to keep nuclear material away from terrorists and dictators. I know it’s not quite as efficacious as breast beating about good ‘n evul and invading foreign countries to show off our big swinging military prowess, but in a sane world it is the kind of thing one would have expected us to do immediately after 9/11 to great fanfare.

However, as it is a break from the preferred Republican methods of intimidation and “message sending,” I’m sure it will be repudiated by Monsieur Delay and Senator Lott as a feminized, sissy-boy program.

The United States, Russia and the U.N. are working to round up nuclear material across the globe to keep it out of the hands of rogue states and militants trying to acquire anything from crude ‘dirty bombs’ to atomic weapons.

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham gave details of the initiative in a speech on Wednesday to members of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Washington has earmarked more than $450 million for the plan, he said.

Abraham said the initiative addressed ‘the threat posed by the entire spectrum of nuclear materials (and) reflects the realities of the 21st century that were so startlingly made clear on a September morning three years ago’.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said the plan was a crucial step in reducing the nuclear threat in light of the recent discovery of a global black market that supplied sensitive atomic technology to countries like Libya, North Korea and Iran.

‘We live in an increasingly polarised world,’ ElBaradei told reporters. ‘If you put these…things together — a polarised world, the proliferation of (nuclear) technology, the proliferation of terrorism — you know we will need to adjust, augment, strengthen our defence.’

The initiative includes a plan to repatriate all unused Russian-origin highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel by the end of next year and all spent nuclear fuel by 2010.

It really is a bold move on Bush’s part because this kind of thing could actually, you know, solve a probem. And solving problems is not something the Bush administration lowers itself to do. Following their Leader’s example, the GOP believes that solutions are for the cleaning crew (the Democrats) to handle after Republicans have worn themselves out raping and pillaging the treasury and the military to such an extent that the American people have to throw them out of office — after which they will devote their rich, fat lives to criticizing the sexual mores of the dog loving feminazis and counting their ill gotten gains.

This is obviously yet another testament to how much the administration is in disarray. This kind of thing would never have happened if Preznit Cheney wasn’t distracted by all the torture, error, lying and mismanagement folderol.