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Homeland Defense Called For | |
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Update: Sept. 11, 2001 - Both towers of New York's World Trade Center and a large section of the Pentagon in Washington, DC were destroyed this morning in coordinated attacks launched by terrorists. Six months earlier...
Dateline: Feb. 6, 2001
Warning that a direct attack on U.S. citizens on U.S. soil is likely over the next 25 years, a bipartisan U.S. study group has reported that current U.S. defense policy lacks "coherent or integrated government structures" to prevent or even deal with such a "catastrophic attack."
The U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21st Century states in its phase 3 report found that without major changes in the nation's education and defense structures, the U.S. risks "losing its capacity to shape history and will instead be shaped by it."
Authorized by Congress in 1998, the commission, co-chaired by former U.S. Senators Warren Rudman (R-NH) of New Hampshire and Gary Hart (D-CO), was assigned to "provide the most comprehensive government-sponsored review of U.S. national security in more than 50 years."According to retired Gen. Charles Boyd, executive director of the commission, "We decided that the most serious problem this nation faces isn't China or North Korea. It's right here at home."
Education
Reform Crucial Recommending
that the government double current funding levels to support new research and
for increasing the number of math and science teachers, the commission warns,
"If we do not invest heavily and wisely in rebuilding these two core
strengths, American will be incapable of maintaining its global position long
into the 21st Century."
The commission concluded that "a greater threat to U.S.
national security over the next quarter century than any potential conventional
war," comes from reduced federal support for scientific and technologic
research, and an overall decline in the quality of education in America.
Homeland Defense
The commission further suggest the creation of a new National
Homeland Security Agency, to be added to the President's
Cabinet. The new agency would integrate the combined defense-related efforts
of the Coast Guard, Customs, Border Patrol and FEMA, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency.
According to the commission, experiences of World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and the Cold War caused many Americans and much of American government to make two dangerous assumptions:
- Wars are fought on foreign soil and always will be.
- The only direct threat to American territory came from Soviet nuclear attack, and the Cold War is over.
But since the end of the Cold War, the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings have killed Americans -- on American soil.
The commission finds U.S. territory increasingly vulnerable to potentially devastating attacks from terrorists armed with both conventional and exotic systems such as biological weapons or easily concealable nuclear devices.
To prevent such attacks, the commission recommends the U.S. initiate a "homeland defense" drawing heavily on the resources of an old, yet often overlooked arm of the defense system -- the National Guard.
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