Are We Safer?
The answer is yes, but a host of vulnerabilities remain, and there's still plenty to worry about
Memories fade with the passage of time, they say, and maybe that's true. For many of us, there have been days, even weeks, when we didn't think about the calamity that befell the nation two Septembers ago. But then, suddenly, there'll be a moment or an image that brings the memories flooding back. It could be a glimpse of an airliner flying low overhead, or an image of the New York skyline in a newspaper or magazine. Who among us didn't think briefly of terrorism when the first news reports trickled in last month about the massive blackout that struck the Northeast?
So yes, it's still out there, and, yes, we're still frightened. A USA Today /CNN/Gallup Poll released a couple weeks back showed that 54 percent thought it likely that terrorists would attack within weeks. What concerns us, as the two-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks approaches, is, first and foremost, safety. After scores of investigations, after billions spent on new programs, new hardware, even a new federal department--the Department of Homeland Security--are we really any safer today?
The answer seems to be "Yes," with an insidious "but" attached. "We're more capable. We're more focused. We've been given more resources," Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, the director of the supersecret National Security Agency, tells U.S. News. "But even if we are at the top of our game, I cannot guarantee that bad things won't happen to us."
America remains by choice an open society; the vulnerabilities are huge, the number of targets endless. So the question "Are we safer?" is really a series of questions. Over the past several weeks, U.S. News reporters spoke with dozens of government officials, security specialists, and other experts to find the answers. Here's what they discovered.
This story appears in the September 15, 2003 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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