Can the reforms come any slower?
The tragedy of September 11th caused America to do some self-examination:
How did it happen?
Why didn't we prevent it?
How can we prevent future attacks?
The 9/11 Commission issued this report on how well Congress and the Bush administration have done in protecting American lives after 9/11...
From the Washington Post:
In its final act before formally disbanding as a private group, the former Sept. 11 commission gave the federal government failing or mediocre grades today for not enacting numerous reforms aimed at protecting the country from terrorist attacks.
The 10-member bipartisan panel, whose investigation into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks resulted in a book-length report that stormed the bestseller lists in the summer of 2004, issued a final report card that included "F" grades in categories ranging from airline passenger screening to the establishment of universal radio spectrums for first responders.
Today's report card, which ranks 41 of the commission's recommendations by letter grades, is likely to mark the last official event of the panel, which recast itself as a private education group a year ago after it ceased to exist as the official independent Sept. 11 investigation. The group has been holding panel discussions and news conferences during the past year aimed at keeping pressure on Congress and the administration to enact its recommended reforms.
According to the panel, the government only deserves one top grade, an A-, for its "vigorous effort against terrorist financing." The panel also handed out a smattering of B's and C's for such issues as the creation of a director of national intelligence and an ongoing commitment to Afghanistan.
But nearly half of the categories merited a D, F or incomplete, according to the report card. The panel was especially critical of the federal government's failure to allocate funds for fighting terrorism based on jurisdictions' risk level, reacting to reports of the use of some of those funds for items not directly linked to threats.
So the results are in. The bipartisan panel has spoken.
If I ruled the world (and this is MY soapbox), I would rank the following criteria in assessing the post-9/11 America...
Security on airplanes: D
Airplane security is the first and most obvious since the perpretrators brought attacked the WTC and Pentagon with aircraft. Civilian aircraft are not safer by any stretch of the imagination. Airport security is equal to mall police. And just as effective, probably as highly paid and trained. The lines are always incredibly long, especially when you have to take off your shoes. And the security guards are very passive, just herding people through the nylon barricades as quickly as possible. Okay, maybe it takes a little bit more effort to get something past the screeners today than it did on 9/10, but someone as few brains as Richard Reid will come up with another clever way to get a bomb on an aircraft. In the spirit of MacGyver, who would always leave out one key ingredient from his pine-cone land mines, let's leave out how one would sneak something past an airport screener. Leave that kind of brain storming to the terrorist websites, not JU.
And how much more protected can we really be if they're allowing screwdrivers, tools, and scissors on aircraft? Check that crap. Who needs a screwdriver on an airplane, anyway?
In a nutshell, I agree with the Commission; I don't think airport security is as good as it could be. They're focusing on the wrong areas.
National Director for Intelligence: B
Good idea, but is it helping? I get memos from the DNI every so often at work. (He says hi, by the way.) Is he really helping? Charting the course for a new century? Ridding the country of people who would do Amerficans harm? I think, yes. The formation of a Director of National Intelligence is a good move for the country. While it does create another line of hierarchy and one more appointed official, Ambassador Negroponte and his deputy, LTG Michael Hayden are good for spearheading the kind of broad, sweeping intelligence reform the country needs. Now if only Congress would listen to them!
Department of Homeland Security: C- / Secretary of Homeland Security: B
Michael Chertoff, like his predecessor, Tom Ridge, is doing his best with a disparate group of departments and bureaus. He has the responsibility of taking in everything from Border Patrol to the TSA (Transportation Safety Administration) to Coast Guard to the Secret Service. What an array of human endeavor! Anything that falls inside the US, except for actual law enforcement (that's FBI) falls under their purview. Yikes. In my mind, the DHS bites off more than it can chew. And as we saw in the recent disasters in New Orleans (the hurricanes were only the beginning!) the DHS has its hands full.
It's easy enough to "blame the government" for the problems that have come about, but I think that Chertoff's the quintessential plate-spinner. Remember at the circus, the guy who gets one plate going as fast as he can then gets two or three more going? Then, by the end of the act, he's darting around the entire stage trying to keep all the plates spinning. And keep the levees from breaking. Yeah, that's the Secretary of Homeland Security.
I know there were more facets of the Commission's review, but I have commented on the topics that I feel are really important. I'm sure there are more opinions out there than just mine...