By pretending the federal government can protect everyone against every threat, the Democrats fall into one of the same traps that mired Republicans. Setting priorities is the only way to protect the most people against the most likely threats with the most serious consequences, all within the resources available. Instead, the House passed a package that is:This article seems rather fair in its assessment. Here is the best part:
•Unrealistic. A mandate to screen every container headed for the USA from every overseas port is little more than a pipedream. Setting up such screening would cost billions of dollars, disrupt worldwide commerce and might require major reconfiguration of some foreign ports. Today's technology might not pick up weapons of mass destruction. And the measure offers no estimate of the cost or how it will be paid.
A more realistic approach is to use the results of a $60 million pilot project to scan containers at six foreign ports to develop a program more carefully tailored to the biggest threats from the riskiest places.
•Unproductive. One 9/11 panel recommendation the Democratic majority could enforce in a heartbeat is to untangle the jumble of House committees that oversee the nation's intelligence and counter-terrorism apparatus. The commission cited that as a primary goal, not just one among equals. But that would mean limiting the power of some new Democratic committee chairmen. Instead, the House made matters worse by adding another panel to the intelligence budget process.
•Unfocused. Congress could make America safer by beefing up weak protections put in place since 9/11. A terror strike at a high-risk chemical plant would endanger hundreds of thousands. Yet the Bush administration and GOP-led Congress left most security enhancements up to the chemical industry. The issue wasn't part of the 9/11 panel's report and wasn't touched by Democrats Tuesday.
The House package does include several useful reforms, such as targeting homeland security grant money to the most high-risk states. But by pretending to do everything, including the impractical and impossible, the House weakens its chance to influence the Senate and President Bush to go along. That's political theater, not a serious strategy.Couldn't have said it better myself.
I've been saying on the radio show that I really don't think we can put all of the 9/11 Commission recommendations into action...and just for the reasons outlined above. Beyond that, the Commission may not have had all the information it requested and therefore, their conclusions can be considered suspect. These recommendations seem rather sensible, but we need to really examine those recommendations that are realistic and doable and adopt those while discarding the fantasy-ladden recommendations that will never be possible.
