220,000 chances to lose a paper behind the desk, fail to communicate between structures and miss threat indications. In its myriad structure, a minute portion of DHS supports a
- Division Director for Explosives
- Division Director for Chemical/Biological
- Division Director for Command, Control & Interoperability
- Division Director for Borders & Maritime Security
- Division Director for Human Factors
- Division Director for Infrastructure & Geophysical
During the next 'event,' in all the misery, smoke, panic and misunderstanding, who do we call? GhostBusters? DHS is what happens when there is no abortion-policy for failed legislation. Government operating as it does (and has), this rash on the ass of rational governance will no doubt be with us for decades. In the meantime, it substantially impedes our national security.
In the White House's after- action report in February 2006, President Bush's homeland security adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend, called the National Response Plan overly complicated, Washington-driven and filled with "enough government acronyms and jargon to make your head spin."
"We need to rewrite the National Response Plan so it is workable and it is clear," she said. "We will draw from the expertise at the state and local levels to ensure that we get it right."
You hit it on the head, Frances. But the criticism isn’t deep enough. The entire fabric of this interagency suit the Congress has devised by layering has become unwearable.
That would be merely inconvenient and expensive, if it wasn’t so dangerous.
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