Making Excuses, Ignoring Security Threats

Yesterday, the House passed an intelligence bill that included a provision requiring a comprehensive report on how climate change may exacerbate national security threats.

This should be obvious and non-controversial. The intelligence community already analyzes the impact of famine, disease and resource shortages on security, and was planning on a global warming assessment anyway.

Yet conservative lawmakers were apoplectic. From Environment & Energy Daily (subscription required):

Rep. Michael Rogers (R-Mich.) referred to one of the Bush administration's favorite talking points, citing the $34 billion the U.S. government has spent over the last six years researching climate change. Rogers added that 14 federal agencies already are working on global warming, from NASA to U.S. EPA.

"We're going to take away resources from the hunt for Osama bin Laden and put them on the 'March of the Penguins'," Rogers said.

Interesting argument, considering that six years ago before 9/11, conservatives were ignoring pleas to spend more on counter-terrorism instead of the national missile defense boondoggle.

Then, the argument was: we already spend $11 billion on counter-terrorism, so we don't need to spend any more.

Then and now, the question shouldn't be: how much has been spent? The question should be: are we getting the job done?

Then and now, conservatives made excuses and empty arguments, instead of responsibly addressing the threats we face.

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