Homeland Securty]
Kevin Bieschke
Dr. Kim
English 102
11/30/2012
Homeland At the beginning of the twenty-first century everything changed for the United States of America. Hundreds of people were forced to jump to their deaths. Four airplanes, used as suicidal attack vessels, quaked the earth and the Pentagon as they hit their targets. Thousands of people died as the towers fell. It all happened Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. Al-Qaeda, an Islamist militant group, was responsible for this brutal terrorist attack. It forced the United States to restructure the architecture of its own government in order to properly respond to a new terrorist threat. The US government had to consolidate “22 government agencies involving 180,000 employees, for the purpose of, as President George W. Bush stated, ‘ensuring that our efforts to defend this country are comprehensive and united’” (Mabee 386). In response to compromised national security, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created. The DHS is responsible for the coordination and unification of homeland security efforts in the United States (Kemp 28). In order to evaluate the success of the DHS I have to analyze whether it’s possible to prevent terrorism, if the US has been more secure since the DHS was created, and whether the DHS compromises our freedom to protect it. To begin with, the Department of Homeland Security uses the concept of virtuality to predict and prevent terrorist attacks. The DHS is “faced with unbounded and unlocatable threats [and] attempt to rein in the seemingly infinite opportunities for disaster into a matrix of predictable and measureable results” (Martin and Simon 283). The concept makes two primary assumptions: there is always a present threat and that it can be predicted and prevented (294). The DHS aims to prevent and alter attacks on US soil by allocating resources towards various response and training methods. The concept makes sense because since September 11th, 2001,
Dr. Kim
English 102
11/30/2012
Homeland At the beginning of the twenty-first century everything changed for the United States of America. Hundreds of people were forced to jump to their deaths. Four airplanes, used as suicidal attack vessels, quaked the earth and the Pentagon as they hit their targets. Thousands of people died as the towers fell. It all happened Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. Al-Qaeda, an Islamist militant group, was responsible for this brutal terrorist attack. It forced the United States to restructure the architecture of its own government in order to properly respond to a new terrorist threat. The US government had to consolidate “22 government agencies involving 180,000 employees, for the purpose of, as President George W. Bush stated, ‘ensuring that our efforts to defend this country are comprehensive and united’” (Mabee 386). In response to compromised national security, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created. The DHS is responsible for the coordination and unification of homeland security efforts in the United States (Kemp 28). In order to evaluate the success of the DHS I have to analyze whether it’s possible to prevent terrorism, if the US has been more secure since the DHS was created, and whether the DHS compromises our freedom to protect it. To begin with, the Department of Homeland Security uses the concept of virtuality to predict and prevent terrorist attacks. The DHS is “faced with unbounded and unlocatable threats [and] attempt to rein in the seemingly infinite opportunities for disaster into a matrix of predictable and measureable results” (Martin and Simon 283). The concept makes two primary assumptions: there is always a present threat and that it can be predicted and prevented (294). The DHS aims to prevent and alter attacks on US soil by allocating resources towards various response and training methods. The concept makes sense because since September 11th, 2001,
Cited: Flynn, Stephen. "Recalibrating Homeland Security." Foreign Affairs 90.3 (2011): 130-40. (2007): 385-97. Print. Martin, Lauren, and Stephanie Simon. "A Formula for Disaster: The Department of Homeland Security 's Virtual Ontology." Space and Polity 12 (2008): 281-96. McNew, David. "TSA Quietly Removing Some Full Body Scanners." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 25 Oct. 2012. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. 2012. Web. 03 Dec. 2012. Security Era." Review Of Policy Research 26.4 (2009): 423-438. Academic Search Premier Flynn, Stephen. "Recalibrating Homeland Security." Foreign Affairs 90.3 (2011): 130-40. "Homeland Security Act of 2002." Web. 30 Nov. 2012. Johnson, Wayman J. "From National Security To Homeland Security." Officer Review Magazine 51.6 (2012): 10-13 (2007): 385-97. Print. Martin, Lauren, and Stephanie Simon. "A Formula for Disaster: The Department of Homeland Security 's Virtual Ontology." Space and Polity 12 (2008): 281-96. May, Peter J., Ashley E. Jochim, and Joshua Sapotichne. "Constructing Homeland Security: An Anemic Policy Regime." Policy Studies Journal 39.2 (2011): 285- 307. Academic Search Premier. Web. 2 Dec. 2012.