ABSTRACT

As you perused the pages of this text, you have witnessed growth in both form and substance. You have witnessed the absorption of departments at a pace never seen before. You have gleaned that the term infrastruc­ ture means more than brick and mortar-that the FDA has a homeland plan just as the National Monuments Agency does. Everyone has a plan. Everyone combats terrorism. Page by page you have read about new plans, new stratagems, new policies, new mergers and realignments. You can get dizzy reading about these changes. And one other thing-you can be sure that what is here likely will be different in a short time. It is my contention that DHS is essentially a toddler who amasses toys without reason and who understands only that the more toys, the better. I do not make light of earnest people who labor each and every day in these systems, but I do question the sensibility of things. If there is any favorable future for DHS, it will have to think more, ask for less, and do things very differently. For example, did it ever occur to policy makers that the hiring of 60,000 new border agents was not the exclusive method of dealing with the immigration problem? As an alternative, why not cut all benefits-in the form of welfare, food stamps, free schools and hospitals-for any illegal immigrant. It is a safe bet that some will leave and less will try to cross the border. Deductively we will need fewer agents. Or what of the TSA-an agency of nearly 45,000 employees-whose task could be performed by machines for the most part. Why do our agencies, so laden with political correctness, so ineffectual in targeting those that should be targeted, continue to look in the three-year-old child’s Ninja Turtle bag, or the coat of an Irish grandmother? The inanity of what one sees day to day at America’s airports cannot be precisely described by words. These are just humble examples of a department that does things in ways that belie any notions of efficiency. A DHS that operates like the one presently witnessed will not last into the next century. It will not be smart enough to last. The future of homeland security can be prosperous and highly effective-it can rein in the degenerated terrorist who haunts our way of life; it can provide levels of security and safety at costs more aligned with reality and the mission of government in general.