Harvard specialist Graham Allison has noted that the “consensus in the national security community” is that “if policy makers in Washington keep doing what they are currently doing about the threat, a nuclear terrorist attack on America is likely to occur in the next decade.” Moreover, “if one lengthens the time frame, a nuclear strike is inevitable.”

But such warnings don’t seem to bother the White House. In a bit of grim irony, the Bush administration chose the 60th anniversary of the U.S. nuclear attack on Hiroshima to begin dismantling some of our bedrock nonproliferation efforts. This from the Global Security Newswire last week:

While Congress is on vacation, the Bush administration is planning to quietly eliminate most State Department arms control offices, phasing out senior positions and merging personnel and functions with nonproliferation and other units, according to a notification document sent to Congress.

What’s more, this phase-out isn’t an issue of funding. It’s actually the Bush administration’s strategy:

The changes, many of which could begin in less than two weeks, appear to reflect a determined shift by the administration away from decades of U.S. focus on promoting international arms control agreements toward ad hoc, less universal efforts to prevent the spread of restricted weapons to terrorists and certain regimes.

The ghost of John Bolton — champion of the ad hoc, “coalition of the willing” approach to nonproliferation — lives on.

The Bush administration’s rosy rhetoric on Iraq continues to do a disservice to Americans who want to be told the truth.

Headline: “Report: Iraq Insurgency Getting Stronger”

The report noted the growing sophistication of the insurgency:

U.S. commanders say the number of attacks against American and Iraqi forces has held steady over the last year, averaging about 65 a day. But they concede the growing sophistication of guerrilla attacks and the insurgents’ ability to replenish their ranks as fast as they are killed.

“We are capturing or killing a lot of insurgents,” a senior Army intelligence officer said. “But they’re being replaced quicker than we can interdict their operations. There is always another insurgent ready to step up and take charge.”

Condi’s Reponse?:

Rice told TIME she believes the insurgents are “losing steam” as a political force, even though their ability to kill and maim at will appears undiminished. When Rice points to “rather quiet political progress” while the country remains embroiled in chaos, even some of her backers cringe. Says a Republican elder statesman: “I don’t have any sense of where she thinks she’s going on Iraq.”