The Next Terrorist Attack: We are Not Prepared

By Brigitte L. Nacos
The 9/11 Commission Report, published in 2004, contains the following advice and indeed warning: “The lesson of 9/11 for civilians and first responders can be stated simply: in the new age of terror, they—we—are the primary targets. The losses America suffered that day demonstrated both the gravity of the terrorist threat and the commensurate need to prepare ourselves to meet it.” 

About a year later, Hurricane Katrina’s landfall along the Gulf coast laid bare the soft underbelly of America’s emergency preparedness and response. The chair and vice-chair of the 9/11 Commission. Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, observed in an op-ed article, “Katrina raises the question of how prepared we are to respond to another massive terrorist attack that would surely occur without warning. The answer is: not nearly as prepared as we should have been.” Jamie Gorelick, a member of the 9/11 Commission, said during a TV, “You know, we have short memories. And the interest has faded. We've gone on to other issues. And when, and when American citizens don't pressure their government, frankly, the government isn't as responsive as it needs to be.”
 

Nearly 7 years after 9/11 and 3 years after Katrina, the American public’s fear of another terror attack is way down. When asked in a CBS News/New York Times poll earlier this month to name “the most important problem facing the country today,” none of the respondents mentioned terrorism. The economy, the war in Iraq, the high cost of energy, the environment, health care, immigration and several other perceived problems led the priority list. Given this mindset, the public is not pressing the Bush administration and congress to improve preparedness for the next terrorist attack or the presidential candidates to reveal their positions on terrorism readiness.

 

What, then, is the state of personal and collective preparedness for the worst case terror scenario and, actually, natural catastrophes as well? According to preparedness experts Irwin Redlener and David Berman, “In the United States, public opinion survey data revealed “a national state of unpreparedness for emergency events” in the post-9/11 years. And in an assessment of professional responders, Sang Ok Choi concluded recently that “[o]verall, the existing government response system is more accurately described as disarrayed, disconnected, uncoordinated, underfunded, and discredited.”

For the most part, the mainstream media ignored terrorism preparedness in particular and disaster readiness in general before 9/11. In spring 2001, a small magazine, The Washington Monthly, published an article by Joshua Green under the headline "Weapons of Mass Confusion: How pork trumps preparedness in the fight against terrorism." Green reported that billions of dollars had been spent for preparedness but had only resulted in a bidding war in Congress and nothing more than a costly, uncoordinated, ineffective mess. The mainstream media was still not interested in the politics of terrorism preparedness policy.

 

Nothing much changed after 9/11. Following the failures in preparedness and response before, during, and after the Katrina disaster, there was justified finger pointing in the direction of the Department of Homeland Security and particularly the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Congress held a multitude of hearings and participated in the blame game—without attributing any responsibility to the two congressional chambers. The media watchdog did not bark in the direction of congress.

 

One of the most important recommendations of the 9/11 Commission urged the streamlining of congressional oversight committees for the sake of more effective homeland security policy, including sensible risk assessments and allotment of funds. Nothing happened in terms of organizational reform during the Republican reign. And although the Democrats promised to implement all recommendations of the 9/11 Commission as majority party, they, too, did not act.

 

I was pleasantly surprised this morning, when I saw that New York Times featured an op-ed article on homeland security—first of all, because this is not a frequent topic in the mainstream media, secondly, because the op-ed describes the problem of fragmented congressional oversight very well. It is mind-boggling that there are still 80 or so congressional committees and subcommittees with a piece of homeland security oversight and that, according to the article, “In 2007 alone, department officials testified at 231 Congressional hearings and provided more than 2,600 briefings to legislators and their staffs. Some of this time could have been spent devising agency policy.”

The author of the op-ed piece, Stephen R. Heifetz, is the deputy assistant secretary for policy development at the Department of Homeland Security. While he writes from the department’s perspective, he points out that “almost all of us civil servants (not political appointees) who will remain in place after the election.”

Heifetz seconds what the 9/11 Commission recommended in vain. Incredibly, in spite of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, we are still not prepared as well as we could for the next man-made and natural disaster. 

Comments

[Shortcake1030]

This is a great post! I have been reading several blogs lately that give good advice on how to prepare for a variety of disasters. One of my favorites is shelfreliance.com/blog.

[Eric Chen]

Professor Nacos,

My recommendation: looks up John Robb and his "Global Guerillas" blog. http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/

I'm currently reading his book "Brave New War". Resiliency is one of his main topics.

[lord rev dyjuan d barnes YAHWEH]

to get ready for the next terrorist attack on america all we need to do is keep our eyes on these fuck heads in our government that are nazis and trying to destroy our country we must stop them now

[LORD REV DYJUAN D BARNES YAHWEH]

all of this money spent on the wars and we are not any safer all the lives lost and we are still not any safer why???????

[LORD REV DYJUAN D BARNES YAHWEH]

LOOK UP WWW.ILLUMINATI-NEWS.COM/2007/1010.HTML

[LORD REV DYJUAN D BARNES YAHWEH]

LOOK UP WWW.ILLUMINATI-NEWS.COM/2007/1010.HTML

[LORD REV DYJUAN D BARNES YAHWEH]

please listen and hear me YAHWEH has told me to tell all of you that we are not safer all the people in and around our government that were involved in the 9-11 incident have not been bought to just so we must be very watchful because these same people are planning to hurt us again but do not fear just let us trust YAHWEH zach.4:6