Our head in sand: Author Security guru sounding alarm

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/213652p-183958c.html

A former Coast Guard commander and adviser to two Presidents charges in a bombshell new book that America is still woefully unprepared for a domestic terrorist attack.

Despite billions spent on homeland security, Stephen Flynn says, the nation's ports, chemical plants and population centers are barely safer than they were before the 9/11 attacks.

"If Sept. 11 <2001> was a wakeup call, clearly America has fallen back asleep," writes Flynn, who worked for Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. "The security measures we have been cobbling together are hardly fit to deter amateur thieves, vandals and hackers, never mind determined terrorists."

"Worse still, small improvements are often oversold as giant steps forward, lowering the guard of average citizens," he adds.

Flynn's stunning book, "America the Vulnerable: How Our Government Is Failing to Protect Us From Terrorism," hits stores tomorrow - just two days before the 9/11 commission is expected to issue its final report blasting the nation's intelligence agencies.

[Ezlivin]

1. America's security may have always been insufficient

When I served aboard a nuclear submarine, one of the duties of a newly attached sailor was something called "topside watch." The sailor who was to stand topside watch was given a .45, a holster and told to watch the topside, particularly the gangplank and the draft readings fore and aft.

On my first watch I was given the gun. It was unloaded.

"What am I supposed to do?" I asked. "Point the empty gun at an attacker and go 'bang'?"

"Load the gun when you need to," I was told as I was handed the clip. I was also told that the gun wasn't kept loaded for safety reasons.

I stood a lot of watches with that unloaded gun and I knew that if anyone really wanted to board our sub, they could. And once on board they would have found an unarmed crew.

If you talk to enough enlisted personnel, you'll find that this type of situation was common throughout the service and it wasn't limited to just the Navy.

It's almost as if we really never believed that someone would attack us.

[Solly Mack]

2. Did anyone ever really believe America was "safe" from attack?

It's not something that people thought about daily but when they did, did they really think it wasn't possible?

I was born in 1964 and was not raised to believe America was "safe" from attack. Quite the contrary, in our home, it was viewed as "just a matter of time"

We can increase security and we can implement policies (foreign, for example) that reduce the likelihood, but can we really just out-and-out stop all attacks?

Haven't we always lived with the possibility? Won't we always live with the possibility?

I can't see much of life if people are living in fear. It just isn't a life worth living. I refuse to allow the hype and the possibility to shape my life.

Bush failed the nation on many levels and I'm not excusing that...he continues to fail the nation...though in all honesty I didn't expect anything else from him.

but everyone and their mother is jumping on the terror bandwagon and for what? To make a buck? To scare the people? To get elected?

Will real changes be made that actually increase safeguards?..or is there just a lot of blustering with no real improvements being made? Places that actually need improvement and not just wasted money and violations of civil liberties? Because thats about all there seems to be...wasted money and constant erosions of our rights.

[MasonJar]

3. They have done practically nothing (ports, nuclear facilities,

trains, trucks, airlines, etc) to protect this country except to attack an innocent country, kill 1000's of its people, and spemd billions doing it.

[Aunt Anti-bush]

4. The * Administration says we're much better off now than before 9-11.

For about a week, I keep hearing Rumsfeld, Powell, Bush, Cheney and the rest of them touting how safe we are and that we're so much better off and protected from terrorism than we were before 9-11.

Liars, Liars Pants on Fire...

[truthisfreedom]

5. when they say "we" they mean bushco. bushco, as you recall, was in a bad

way on sept 11, 2001, and things looked up for them afterward.

[TahitiNut]

6. Steve Flynn's part of the rightwing 'fearmonger' cabal.

USCGA'82, CFR, Brookings, etc. Very bright, very ambitious, right-winger -- promotes a siege mentality.