Bad policies accumulate. The most egregious was George W. Bush's misleading case to the public to justify his invasion of Iraq that the Iraqi regime cooperated with al Qaeda. Holding prisoners in Guantánamo for over two years without greater transparency raises questions about its legality. The Justice Department uses the threat alert system mainly as political cover against the event of another terrorist attack. The FBI's astounding incompetence remains unaddressed as does its officials' use of the Patriot Act to excuse their past fecklessness. And the administration flatly denies the intelligence community's incontrovertible failures.
Beyond issues of principle, the fiscal costs are irresponsible. Security measures have grown far out of proportion to the safety they provide. This is especially true of the oversized Department of Homeland Security. Foreign students and important visitors are being turned away at great loss to U.S. higher education, science, and culture. The billions of dollars spent on barriers, guards, and check-points are transaction costs to the U.S. economy that probably exceed Osama bin Laden's expectations.
How do we escape this awful predicament? Useful first steps would be to remove the barriers in front of the White House and the Capitol, encourage public confidence instead of hysteria about terrorism, rescind the Patriot Act, and withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq so more effort can be directed against al Qaeda.
William E. Odom, lieutenant general, U.S. Army, retired, is an adjunct professor at Yale University and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
-- Michael Pugliese