Our War Department (euphemistically renamed the Department of Defense) hasn't provided defense to the US mainland since its name was changed. I prefer calling it the Department of Offense or sometimes the DoD - Department of Destruction. It is good at foreign military action, but how this protects the homeland is somewhat indirect.
When the US mainland was attacked it became apparent that we needed an actual department of defense so 'Homeland Security' was created. It has now spent billions setting up programs to protect against things which are not probable.
Some of these include screening for radiological threats, anthrax and smallpox. The chances of the latter two are essentially nil and radiological threats have a very small range of effect as the recent Polonium incident illustrated.
So what are the real risks to the US? I put them into two categories. The first is protecting against earth-caused disasters. These include weather related issues like Katrina as well as floods and earthquakes. The second category are biological dangers.
By allowing new diseases to proliferate in other areas of the world we are leaving ourselves open to new pandemics. HIV started in Africa and if it had been treated with all the tools available the range over which it would have spread could have been limited. Fifty or 100 million dollars twenty years ago would have probably been enough to limit the spread. Instead the rise of the disease was neglected and even when it entered the US steps to control it were late and ineffective.
A similar situation is now occurring with bird flu. The WHO and several other international bodies have aggressive programs to limit the spread in Europe and Asia, but just think of how much more effective they would be with a full court press aided by the resources of the US CDC as a major partner.
In the past few months a new deadly form of TB has shown up in parts of Africa. It has already killed dozens and there is no treatment. Now is the time for a massive program to prevent it from spreading. Where is our commitment?
The best defense is to prevent such diseases from spreading in the first place, then the risk to the US is minimized. That's true homeland security.
We cannot predict earthquakes and the like, but we can prepare for them. The problems in New Orleans were well understood before the hurricane, but the US decided to shortchange the defensive infrastructure measures that were needed to prevent a calamity. The $175 million for prevention has turned into multiple billions for repairs and untold misery. We all know that in addition to failing on prevention the rescue efforts were a disaster and the tragedy continues with a botched restoration effort.
Is our lack of preparedness due to ignorance, political expedience or perhaps the entire Homeland Security apparatus is just a scam to funnel funds to favored contractors. Whatever it is, it's not doing the job.
The old motto is still true: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.