What would we do without experts?

Former 9/11 Commissioners: U.S. at Risk

WASHINGTON - The U.S. is at great risk for more terrorist attacks because Congress and the White House have failed to enact several strong security measures, members of the former Sept. 11 commission said Sunday.

"It's not a priority for the government right now," said the former chairman, Thomas Kean, ahead of the group's release of a report Monday assessing how well its recommendations have been followed.

"More than four years after 9/11 ... people are not paying attention," the former Republican governor of New Jersey said. "God help us if we have another attack."

Added Lee Hamilton, the former Democratic vice chairman of the commission: "We believe that another attack will occur. It's not a question of if. We are not as well-prepared as we should be."

The five Republicans and five Democrats on the commission, whose recommendations are now promoted through a privately funded group known as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, conclude that the government deserves "more Fs than As" in responding to their 41 suggested changes.

Since the commission's final report in July 2004, the government has enacted the centerpiece proposal to create a national intelligence director. But the government has stalled on other ideas, including improving communication among emergency responders and shifting federal terrorism-fighting money so it goes to states based on risk level.....

But WHY are we at risk? That might require some analysis or reasoning. I think it's a global Islamic jihad, but I'm not bound by the strictures of political correctness. Obsessing over emergency response seems a bit like worrying about the deck chairs on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg.

The first paragraph makes terrorism out to be a force of nature. We just sit here and wait for it to strike, stocking up on canned food, bottled water, and candles. Never in the course of human history have so many, tasked with so much, come up with so little. That is one of the worst uses of "because" I've ever seen. ex// Bob hit the light pole because his seat belt wasn't on.