WHO? The American People.
WHAT? Are better protected today than they were on 9/11.
WHEN? However, homeland security can be made better through some practical improvements.
WHERE? Given the political will, we can make changes to improve homeland security.
WHY? Homeland security safeguards the nation from domestic catastrophic destruction.
In the last topic we talked about what in homeland security we are doing bad. In this context, “bad” meant any homeland security investment not contributing to the core mission of safeguarding the nation from domestic catastrophic destruction. In this topic, we take the bold step in suggesting how we might turn bad into better. To be fair, we will confine our suggestions to practical solutions that can be readily implemented. Let us begin as before with Border and Transportation Security. Last topic we noted the current state of the practice is such that we CAN’T keep criminals or contraband from entering the country, and we pay a high economic price for ineffective screening. We can do a better job by first explicitly acknowledging what we tacitly already know, that we can’t keep criminals or contraband from entering the country. Let us also accept the fact that the means of destruction are already here, and that by means of cyber-attack, you don’t have to be in the US to attack it from anywhere around the world. Once we accept these facts, then we can adopt faster screening methods that are “light-and-tight”. Light screenings for all passengers and cargo, and tight screenings only for a random selection. The nation’s overall security posture wouldn’t be compromised, however, it would cost less. Okay, Counterterrorism. Last time we said it was fundamentally flawed because it tries to predict crime based on motive. Motive is only one predicate for crime. You also need Means and Opportunity. Eliminate only one predicate, and you thwart the crime. The Means and Opportunity for committing domestic catastrophic destruction are much smaller and more substantive than Motive. Counterterrorism efforts aimed at reducing Opportunity or monitoring Means would not have to contend with human indeterministic behavior, and could be subsequently more effective. Emergency Management. Solve interoperability. Buy everybody the same radios. Countering WMD. Create a permanent disposal solution for nuclear waste. Open Yucca Mountain. Critical Infrastructure Protection. Adopt a metric. There are plenty out there. Cybersecurity. Develop in-depth defense. Create a national firewall. No, the government doesn’t own the Internet, but that doesn’t mean they can’t make it safer. As big and vast as the Internet may be, it has only 355 Internet Exchange Points worldwide. Those located in the US provide optimum locations for setting up a national firewall. All of these improvements are attainable. The only thing that stands in their way is political will.