U.S. Can’t Protect All Targets, Chertoff Says

[kurth]

September 13, 2006
U.S. Can’t Protect All Targets, Chertoff Says
By ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON — Congress and the American public must accept that the government cannot protect every possible target against attack if it wants to avoid fulfilling Al Qaeda’s goal of bankrupting the nation, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate committee Tuesday. Osama bin Laden, Mr. Chertoff said, has made it clear that scaring the United States into an unsustainable spending spree is one of his aims. In a 2004 video, Mr. bin Laden, the Qaeda leader, spoke of “bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy.”

“He understood that one tool he had in waging war against the United States was to drive us crazy, into bankruptcy, trying to defend ourselves against every conceivable threat,” Mr. Chertoff said at a hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “We have to be realistic about what we expect and what we do. We do have limits, and we do have choices to make.” The direct reference to Mr. bin Laden echoes what is now a week’s worth of tough talk by the Bush administration about him, a move Democrats call a politically motivated effort to refocus the nation, and its voters, on the war on terror instead of the troubled conflict in Iraq.

Mr. Chertoff, since he was named secretary in February 2005, has talked of the need to make spending risk-based, but his department has also been lambasted for compiling a list of possible targets that included a petting zoo, a bourbon festival and a popcorn factory, while at the same time it cut antiterrorism grants to high-risk cities like Washington and New York...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/washington/13chertoff.html

[MadMaddie]

1. So the billions wasted in Iraq couldn't help protect the US

I am so sick of their excuses..

[warrens]

2. Duh

So why bother checking containers at ports or anything else that might be effective. That won't scare people enough. Better concentrate on the stuff that is useless, but makes good headlines.

[DaveJ]

3. Veiled Fear Mongering

Computer programmers certainly need to understand how hundreds of thousands of components interact in order to maintain synchronicity. It's not surprising that a military commander would be intimidated by the idea of having to do the same on a human level because they are not trained to keep order. That's what government leaders are supposed to do.

[catnhatnh]

4. Yep...

But at least they won't get that Amish popcorn factory. Right, shitweasel???