A Change, But Is It Enough?
There were voices in the government before Sept. 11 stressing the need to establish a sound strategy of Homeland security, but it took the shock of the terrorist attacks to shake loose our government’s inertia.
Months later, amid a barrage of recriminations about what our government didn’t do that could have prevented the attacks, once again we see our leaders shaken from their inertia, but to do what? It turns out our government’s next step in reaction to terrorism is to do a very government-like thing. According to President Bush, the plan is to reorganize.
Bush’s proposal will raise the profile of Homeland security and streamline the bureaucracy, but it also begs a question: When are we going to stop talking and do something? While it’s true that pre-Sept. 11 we didn’t talk enough about security, since then talking about it is about all we have done. Looking ahead to months of discussion in Congress about the details of Bush’s plan, we can expect even more talk.
Sadly, in the end, it will take more than a shifting of Washington bureaucracies to have a real impact on Homeland security. At some point, once all the government machinations have settled, all the turfs have been preserved, and all the politics are out of the process, maybe our leaders will get down to actually taking action.
On the other hand, when will that happen? It is also what we were waiting on before Sept. 11.
