ABSTRACT
Threats to "security" can arise from within or out-side the country. They can arrive in many forms-not just as bullets, bombs, and rockets, but also as disease, food shortages, and climate change. Poor education and health care also endanger national as well as individual security. The greatest large-scale military threats to Americans come from China and Russia, but the Bush team in its first nine months treated both countries with near contempt. Things changed after 9/11 as Washington sought Chinese and Russian help in the war against terror. Bush then ignored human rights abuses in China and Russia in return for their acquiescence in US bases in Central Asia. The list began with the "axis of evil" trio-Iraq, Iran, and North Korea-but also included Libya, Syria, Russia, and China. In 2007 North Korea agreed to disable the facility from which it obtained plutonium and by years end to document all its other nuclear facilities.
