Debate This

In my increasing despair about the level of political discourse (or lack thereof) being evinced in the “debates,” I’d forgotten about a piece Michael Stebbins wrote for the November/December 2007 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. ” Luckily, the Utne Reader reprinted it.

Five years into the Iraq debacle, national security has been reduced to an election slogan that pairs either pro or anti with war. Meanwhile, important issues such as nuclear proliferation, military escalation with China, and unmonitored, unhinged spending by the Defense Department don’t fuel political chatter or get the talking heads spinning. On a campaign trail paved with sound bites, they hardly merit a mention.

Last year, during the parade of primary debates, Michael Stebbins and his colleagues at the Federation of American Scientists assembled a list of pressing national security questions that voters deserve to hear answered. Though the field has narrowed, the candidates and the press continue to avoid these matters. We’ve still got time before November, though, so if a candidate comes your way, consider posing one of the federation’s questions, which Utne Reader reprints here from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Nov.-Dec. 2007), an indefatigable watchdog of the nuclear and defense arenas.

[read “Hey Candidates: Debate This!”]

(Incidentally, [tag]Michael Stebbins[/tag] is an artomatic artist)