Money for Nothing

An assumed truth is that expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars will make U.S. citizens safer in der Homeland. The fact is, the government cannot and does not provide security for its citizens. The acts that we accept as necessary for security provide only the illusion of security.

Harrassing lawful American citizens in airports and violating Constitutional rights has not made us safer. I pose this question: If the entire Federal law enforcement and intel apparatus cannot find, arrest, and prosecute the perpetrator of the anthrax letters following 9-11, then how can they protect us from Al Quaida? Even with illegal NSA intercepts, the anthrax mailer remains at large.

The Unabomber--Ted Kaczinski--would never have been caught if his brother had not turned him in. This doesn't inspire confidence in the FBI. In a related thought, in 2004 the government couldn't even provide adequate flu vaccine for our population, yet we're led to believe that Homeland Security has a handle on bioterrorism. Excuse me for being skeptical.

Suppose the Katrina tragedy in New Orleans was a bioterrorism attack instead--would the Federal response have been any more organized than an Arabian horse show?