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dollars annually. But that's still only a few ladditionall dollars per Ipas–
senger
1
ticket."
Of course, complacency was not a monopoly of the airline industry.
As Stephen E. Flynn recounts in his eye-popping chapter, "The
Unguarded Homeland," "most of the physical plant, telecommunica–
tions, power, water supply, and transportation infrastructure on U.S.
territory lies unprotected or is equipped with security sufficient to deter
only amateur vandals, thieves, or hackers." His chapter is chock-full of
ha ir-raising statistics-not least a bout cross-border ca rgo movement
from Canada, where there are still "only 700 customs inspectors cur–
rently assigned to that border-200 fewer than worked the border 20
years ago!! I" a Ithough U.S. trade with Ca nada
j
um ped from rough Iy
$120 billion worth of goods in
T985
to over $400 billion in 2000. Yet,
as the author also points out, "what is most surprising is that the United
States had managed to dodge the catastrophic terrorism bullet for so
long."
It
is imperative, therefore, that we try harder to develop a proper
(though, again, by no means fail-safe) homeland security strategy: (a)
by
"building a regime that can reliably identify the people, goods and con–
veyances that are legitimate"; and (b) by developing, for people, "uni–
versa I biometric travel identi fication ca rds," a nd, for ca rgo, tighter
security practices to prevent unauthorized entry into loading docks and
theft-resista nt mechanica I sea Is for conta iners.
It
is these types of concrete (and predictably costly) measures that, as
Joseph S. Nye, Jr. himself argues in "Government's Challenge: Getting
Serious About Terrorism," can make a difference down the road. What
we need, says Nye, is not yet another federal department or a "czar" (as
in "drug czar" or "poverty czar"). Instead, "IToml Ridge's office should
be supported by one or more specially created, federally funded
research-and-development corporations ... land I it should be organized
to think systematical ly and comprehensively about terrorism, starting
with intelligence and warning, then moving through deterrence and
prevention, crisis and conseq uence management, and postevent reta lia–
tion and system repair."
Nye is also right to insist that "suppressing terrorism is very different
from a lnormal l military campaign." For one thing, the process is never–
ending: there is no grand, final battle-a Salamis or a Waterloo. for
another, even "as we succeed in battening down the cockpits ... ter–
rorists will be exploring vulnerabilities in our open society and investi–
gating [the possible usel of even more devastating weapons." But, adds
the author, "fortunately, nuclear and biological weapons are not as easy
to make as popular fiction suggests."
