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Failing to Protect America
By Scott Bates, CNP Online
December 5, 2005
Four years after the attacks of September 11th, the federal government is failing to take the steps necessary to protect America from another and perhaps more catastrophic terrorist attack. Some eighteen months after issuing a strategic plan on protecting the United States from terrorist attack, the ten members of the bi-partisan 9/11 Commission reassembled one last time to issue a report card on progress in the forty-one areas in which they issued recommendations. The results were an indictment of a do-little Congress and an Administration distracted from the main mission of defeating Osama Bin Ladin.
When the 9/11 Commission issued its report in July 2004, they provided the road map for a comprehensive plan to protect America that had three main elements; targeting the terrorists, protecting the homeland and preventing the rise of future terrorists. To win the war on terror it is necessary to move forward on all three fronts at the same time. Unfortunately for the American people, efforts have been ad hoc, incoherent and incomplete.
The White House has pursued a single-minded strategy of attacking the terrorists, even in places where Al-Qaeda was not operating, like Iraq. “The best way to protect the American people is to take the fight to the enemy,” is the official White House line. Good slogan, terrible policy.
Fred Fielding, a Republican appointee to the 9/11 Commission and former Nixon Administration official understands that protecting America from Al-Qaeda requires a more intelligent strategy that includes the three elements of targeting the terrorists, protecting the homeland and preventing the rise of future terrorists. “These changes are to be made in full, they are not a Chinese take out menu to pick and choose from”, said Fielding.
Four years after the attacks of September 11th how are we doing in the war on terror? How are we doing when it comes to targeting the terrorists, protecting the homeland and preventing the rise of future terrorists?
As for targeting the terrorists, the 9/11 Commissioners gave a “D” for information sharing between government agencies, one of the main flaws in our system that allowed Al-Qaeda to successfully deliver a surprise attack. Four years after the attacks of September 11th, Bin Ladin is at large, the Taliban have resurfaced in Afghanistan and a new and potentially more aggressive terrorist leader, Zaqawi, has been born in the chaos that is Iraq.
As for protecting the homeland, the 9/11 Commissioners gave out failing grades to Congress for continuing to dish out homeland security funds based on pork barrel politics instead of a threat/vulnerability assessment and for failing to provide the radio spectrum necessary so first responders can communicate effectively at a disaster site. “It’s a scandal”, said the Republican Chairman of the 9/11 Commission Tom Kean.
Most disturbing of all, the 9/11 Commissioners gave a grade of “D” for U.S. efforts to prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear material and for controlling our own borders. Remembering that Osama Bin Ladin has said it is a religious duty for Al-Qaeda to acquire nuclear weapons and kill as many Americans as possible, we have the following nightmare scenario. We have not done enough to keep nuclear bomb material from terrorists, we do not have control of our borders and the fire fighters and rescue personnel that would have to respond to a catastrophic attack do not have the money or equipment to effectively do their duty. America’s door is open for a nuclear 9/11.
As for preventing the rise of future terrorists, Congress and the Administration received a “D” for promoting secular education in Muslim countries and supporting exchange and outreach programs necessary to promote better understanding of the United States. In 2004, the US Government provided fewer new resources to winning hearts and minds in the Islamic world than it spent for one day of the Iraq war.
Four years after September 11th, how are we doing in the war on terror? Four years into the Civil War, Union troops had taken Richmond. Four years into World War Two, the American flag flew over Tokyo. Four years into the war on terror, the conveyor belt producing Islamist terrorists is speeding up while we fail to take basic steps to protect our people at home.
Four years into the war on terror we must answer the question of Mary Fetchet, whose son died at the World Trade Center on September 11th, who said upon hearing the report card issued by the 9/11 Commission, “How many lives have to be lost before we have a system put in place that’s going to protect us?”
Scott Bates is the former Senior Policy Advisor for the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee and is currently Senior Fellow for National Security at the non-partisan Center for National Policy where he works with 9/11 Commissioner Tim Roemer. Bates lives in Stonington, CT.