Cato Daily Dispatch for November 8, 2004
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U.S., Iraqi Troops Launch Offensive on FallujahUnited States Unprepared to Protect against Bioterrorism
Migration a Top Issue at U.S.-Mexico Meetings
U.S., Iraqi Troops Launch Offensive on Fallujah
"Thousands of U.S. troops, backed by armor and a stunning air barrage, attacked the toughest strongholds of Sunni insurgents in Fallujah on Monday, launching a long-awaited offensive to put an end to guerrilla control of the Sunni Muslim city," the Associated Press reports.
"After nightfall, U.S. troops advanced slowly on the northwestern Jolan neighborhood, a warren of alleyways where Sunni militant fighters have dug in. Artillery, tanks and warplanes pounded the district's northern edge, softening the defenses and attempting to set off any bombs and boobytraps before troops moved in."
In "Overstating the Zarqawi Threat," Charles V. Peņa, director of defense policy studies, writes: "Even if Zarqawi is eventually killed or captured, the problem of violent insurgency in Iraq will continue, as it did after Saddam was captured. The propensity to periodically explain Iraqi violence as the result of single causes -- an insurgency orchestrated by Saddam Hussein, by Baathist dead-enders loyal to the former regime, by militia followers loyal to the young Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and now by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi -- has been misleading from the beginning."
In the Cato Institute book Exiting Iraq: Why the U.S. Must End the Military Occupation and Renew the War against Al Qaeda, a special task force of 10 foreign policy experts charts a path for the expeditious withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Iraq. The withdrawal process, the task force argues, should begin immediately and end no later than January 31, 2005, the time of nationwide elections.
United States Unprepared to Protect against Bioterrorism
"The United States remains woefully unprepared to protect the public against terrorists wielding biological agents despite dramatic increases in biodefense spending by the Bush administration and considerable progress on many fronts, according to government officials and specialists in bioterrorism and public health," the Washington Post reports.
"Although administration officials have spoken at times about bioterrorism's dangers, they are more alarmed than they have signaled publicly, U.S. officials said. As President Bill Clinton did, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have thrust themselves into the issue in depth."
In "Smallpox and Bioterrorism: Why the Plan to Protect the Nation Is Stalled and What to Do," William J. Bicknell, M.D., and Kenneth D. Bloem argue that "we have not yet realized the complexity and difficulty of vaccinating millions of Americans rapidly after an attack. Nor have we come to grips with the need to make rapid, possibly draconian, post-attack decisions based on limited data of uncertain quality. That type of decisionmaking runs counter to the culture of public health. The Bush administration needs to revitalize our preparations for a smallpox bioterrorist event."
Migration a Top Issue at U.S.-Mexico Meetings
"In meetings with the United States this week, Mexico will urge the Bush administration to pay more attention to Latin America in its second term and to move forward on proposals that would give legal status to millions of illegal migrants," the New York Times reports.
"Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and the secretary of homeland security, Tom Ridge, will travel to Mexico on Monday for meetings of the United States-Mexico Binational Commission. It will be Mr. Powell's first foreign trip since President Bush's re-election last week. The commission is scheduled to discuss a range of issues, including trade, border security and the fight against drug trafficking. Migration tops Mexico's agenda."
In "Mexican Workers Come Here to Work: Let Them!" Daniel T. Griswold, director of Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies, writes: "Migration from Mexico is driven by a fundamental mismatch between a rising demand for low-skilled labor in the U.S. and a shrinking domestic supply of workers willing to fill those jobs. The Labor Department estimates that the total number of jobs in our economy that require only short-term training will increase from 53.2 million in 2000 to 60.9 million by 2010, a net increase of 7.7 million. Meanwhile, the supply of American workers willing to do such work continues to fall because of an aging workforce and rising education levels."
Jonathan Block, editor, jblock@cato.org