Thinking About Security

I'm a union guy. My life's work has been fighting for a fair shake for working men and women. I care about politics primarily because without just laws and the even-handed administration of government, the powerful will walk all over the worker. But national security is never far from any of our minds these days.

We all have our own opinions about what has happened in the post-9/11 world. But sometimes it pays to listen to people who have real credentials. I recently read about a man named Rand Beers. He is a former Marine rifle company commander in Vietnam who served at the National Security Council during Republican and Democratic administrations. In March of 2003, Beers resigned as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Combating Terrorism in protest against the Bush administration for what he contends is a loss of focus in the war against terrorism. Eight weeks later, he joined the Kerry primary campaign as National Security/Homeland Security Issues Coordinator. When asked why he supported Kerry over the other eight other candidates in the primary, Beers said: "I knew about his [Kerry's] record in the Senate and on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and on the Senate Intelligence Committee. I knew that he cared about the changing security environment that the world was facing... I was drawn to John Kerry because of our similar experiences [in Vietnam], plus the knowledge that individuals who have served in combat have an important perspective when they make decisions about war and peace."
Beers will work with Kerry's Senior Military Advisory Group. This body includes such individuals as General John Shalikashvili, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Admiral Stansfield Turner, former Director of the CIA, and General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

I looked harder at the Democratic challenger's policy proposals. Kerry has proposed separate initiatives to keep terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons and to reduce the threat of biological attack. He would make preventing nuclear and biological terrorism Cabinet-level priorities. His plans would include steps to secure existing weapons in Russia and the United States and an international coalition for a global ban on production of material for new nuclear weapons.

Kerry has met with large groups of leading first-responders (many of them union members), and public health officials to develop his proposals to reduce the threat of biological attack. His measures would include strengthening America's hospitals and health plan systems and a Strategic Drugs and Vaccine Initiative that will identify barriers to the development of new drugs and vaccines.

Experts alone will never win a war against terror. It takes the sacrifice of the troops and their families. Lost in much of the current campaign news is the fact that Bush has proposed deep cuts in veterans' health care and benefits for military personnel and their families, most of whom are from working class backgrounds. Kerry would provide a Military Family Bill of Rights to ensure competitive pay, good housing, health care, quality education for children, first-rate training, and the best possible weaponry, armor and state-of-the-art equipment.

The Bush campaign is spending millions of dollars to characterize John Kerry as someone who cannot be trusted to lead the war against terrorism. I'd rather make up my own mind than listen to the distortions of political hired guns. I think John Kerry is in fact the real deal.

Jeremiah J. OConnor

International Secretary-Treasurer

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July/August 2004 IBEW Journal