The Armchair Politician

As most of us know, President Bush gave his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. Near the opening, Bush made the statement, “Each day, law enforcement personnel and intelligence officers are tracking terrorist threats; analysts are examining airline passenger lists; the men and women of our new homeland security department are patrolling our coasts and borders. And their vigilance is protecting America.” But even with all this, does anyone out there actually believe we’re any safer?

Despite all of the measures we’ve taken to increase homeland security, we’re just as vulnerable as ever. ABC News was able to smuggle 15 pounds of depleted uranium through customs. This material, according to the article, is about half that required to make a crude nuclear device. The port of New York, America’s busiest, is still only able to screen more than a fraction of the three million cargo containers coming into the country each year.

Even worse, look how we’re allocating our precious Homeland Security funds. Recently, “the Department of Homeland Security…announced that it would direct ‘intelligence and investigative resources’ to identify travelers or businesses that circumvent the sanctions against Cuba” (source: New York Times). Yes, we are actually setting aside Homeland Security funds towards preventing Americans from flying to Cuba. Regardless of your opinion on the travel ban, there is absolutely no reason that money cordoned off for Homeland Security purposes is going towards the enforcement of this ban. However much or little money they may dedicate to this, it could easily be going to a much more needed purpose.

When it comes down to it, President Bush would rather play politics than protect our borders. Why else would Cuba be on our list of state sponsors of terror (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Cuba, North Korea, and Sudan)? Cuba is currently under no international suspicion of harboring terrorists. The only insinuations the American government can come up with is that former members of the the ETA (Euskadi ta Askatasuna), a Basque terrorist/separatist group, have sought asylum within Cuba. While this could be considered a valid concern, think about the situation a little deeper. The ETA’s goal is for an autonomous Basque nation, to be formed by secession from Spain. You would assume that Spain would hold hard feelings towards Cuba for these actions, if they were truly sinister, yes? Well, both Spain and the European Union have full trade and diplomatic relations with Cuba. Cuba has been treated similarly to the rest of Latin America by the European Union with the exception of the Cotonou Agreement (which Cuba is not a part of, due to human rights violations). In fact, Spain’s attitude towards Cuba, with regard to their offered asylum for Basque terrorists is largely gratitude: by providing asylum, Cuba is encouraging ETA fugitives to retire.

Airport security is a joke as well. Not only do we have near-daily reports of passenger harassment for stupidly silly reasons, but federal agents are still able to get weapons past airport screeners with little trouble. While screeners are busy strip searching grandmothers, forcing women to drink their own breastmilk, and harassing little children without any reasonable suspicion, and while they’re busy confiscating dangerous skateboards, tweezers, pens, and sex toys, it’s still excruciatingly simple to file down the edge of a credit card, producing a razor-sharp weapon that has near zero chance of detection when stuffed in your wallet alongside everything else.

Just as much of a joke is the Homeland Security color-coded warning system. Does anyone still remember what the different colors mean? I mean, I think that yellow is bad and orange is worse, but am I sure? I wouldn’t bet my life on it. Even if the majority of the public could tell you what level of warning the colors correspond to, what good does it do us? If anything, it simply causes mass paranoia. There is nothing you can change in your daily routine to definitively mitigate the threat you face from a terrorist attack. That’s what terrorism thrives on–the fact that it’s impossible to predict when and where an attack will occur. This fear is the same one generated by snipers skillfully positioned on a battlefield: you could die at any second, without even knowing it. Frankly, there’s no real reason to have the warning level made public. Additionally, the information is badly targetted. If there’s a tangible threat in, say, three major cities, the entire nation is warned. Security firms and government security forces then dedicate resources unnecessarily, when there’s no predicted danger.

And that’s the sad truth of the state of homeland security today. Even if President Bush and Tom Ridge were to cut the crap out of the Department of Homeland Security, prioritize security over politics, use limited funds more efficiently, and target information more effectively, we still would have little chance of foiling a determined terrorist. There are too many miles of unprotected American borders, too many imported containers, and too many travelers coming into the country. Even with doubled or tripled dollar amounts being dedicated towards Homeland Security, we would still only increase its effectiveness by a few percentage points, thanks to extremely unforgiving diminishing returns.

Frankly, I’m not so sure that it’s worth it. Some short-term solutions, such as arming airline pilots, could be moderately effective deterrants without risking so many civil liberties. On the other hand, infringements on civil rights imposed by the PATRIOT Act, the Victory Act, the PATRIOT II, and other similar legislation seem to be disregarding the warnings of Benjamin Franklin, who wisely stated that, “they who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.”