Via Atrios, Hillary Clinton spoke at a national security conference at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. She blasted Bush on national security.

"We have relied on a myth of homeland security - a myth written in rhetoric, inadequate resources and a new bureaucracy instead of relying on good, old-fashioned American ingenuity, might and muscle," Clinton said. "The truth is we are not prepared, we are not supporting our first responders, and our approach to securing our nation is haphazard at best," Clinton said. "Somewhere along the line, we lost our edge. We let our guard down."

We're struck by the similarity between her comments and those of Gary Hart in his recent national security speech.

As recently as three months ago the Council on Foreign Relations task force that I co-chaired reported that we are woefully unprepared for, and still at risk of, future terrorist attacks. It is imprudent in the extreme to attack a nation in a region seething with hostile suicidal forces when we are vulnerable to their retaliation."

Hillary promoted her "Provide for the Common Defense Act," "which she argues will force the federal government to give much-needed assistance to states and cities to protect citizens from terror threats. Her legislation calls for spending to develop anti-terror technologies, to create a task force to set minimum security standards, and to add federal security personnel in areas with large populations, including New York City."

Hart also spoke at the John Jay conference, but we haven't seen a news account of his speech yet. Like Atrios, we find the Republican criticism of her speech as "inviting" terrorist attacks to be baseless political rhetoric. We believe, like Clinton and Hart, this nation is not prepared for the consequences that a premptive war in Iraq will have here in the United States.