The Republican Party has gone to the national security well so many times over the past six years -- heck, the last 60 years -- that some Democrats have convinced themselves that they are actually less adept at protecting America than the Republicans. This view is particularly rampant among the hawkish wing of the party (with great overlap with the DLC) which constantly tries to disprove the GOP by professing strength (and thus showing that Democrats are as tough as Republicans) but in doing so only reinforces the Republicans' meme.

To win this debate, rather than work for a tie (which in reality relegates Democrats to losing because it presupposes that Democrats can't win), the party must show voters that Republicans are significantly more inept at issues of national security than they portray themselves to be. Luckily, this argument is essentially made for itself by the direct results of Republican policies.

One need only look broadly at the situation in Iraq today to see what an embrace of Republican policies can wreak both on the world and on the United States. America is less safe today than it was before the invasion Iraq and America's standing in the world is lower than it has been in at least 60 years -- perhaps even 100 years.

But even on the more micro, rather than macro level, facts on the ground around the world show that Republican policies not only fail at protecting America but in fact weaken our defense. Today, for instance, we learn from William J. Broad of The New York Times that the Bush administration, at the bequest of the Republican Congress, published a website containing documents from the Iraqi government, including some that appear to provide directions for building atomic weapons. Yes, the government was actually giving away the blueprints for a nuclear bomb. If that deriliction of duty were not enough to convince you that Republicans are simply incapable of protecting America, a former top U.S. negotiator with North Korea -- someone who served under the Bush administration -- said, according to the AP's George Gedda, that "U.S. dealings with that country have been hampered by missteps and lack of a coherent policy." Looking at the tangible effects of Bush administration policies towards North Korea, whereas the communist country did not attain nuclear weapons under the period of bilateral dialogue with the Clinton administration, today the stubbornness and ideology pushed by the current Republican administration has fostered an environment in which the North Koreans have been able to build at least one nuclear weapon.

These are but two of many, many examples.

Given that just about everything that has happened over the last six years and even the past 14 years points to the fact points to the fact that Democrats are just plain better at national security than Republicans, I reiterate something I wrote about two weeks ago. "If the Republicans want to get into a debate over national security with the Democrats, the Dems should say fine, Bring It On. A clear plurality of Americans already trust the Democrats in Congress more than the Republicans in Congress on the issue of terrorism and a hastily-made ad with little money behind isn't going to change that immediately. So get some teeth, get some spine and show the Republicans that Democrats aren't going to take it anymore."