Posted by Fitz
One of the recurring mantras of the Bush administration in response to the September 11th Commission Report has been, “we have been moving ahead”. I heard Condi Rice utter these exact words on Friday and heard them repeated by various pundits over the weekend.
The basic argument seems to be that a) some of the commission’s recommendations are not new and b) people have been working on them. Amazingly, despite this administration’s track record with honesty, both these contentions appear to be true. The problem seems to be one of omission. What Condi should have added is c) and we have been fighting these efforts tooth and nail.
There are actually a fair number of examples of this, but I’ll give just one. A large section of the 9/11 report focuses on first responder communication infrastructure. At least two panel members found this important enough to specifically mention in recent press conferences. This is understandable, NY police and firefighters were disproportionately represented in 9/11 casualties, and many may have been spared had they all gotten the message about the potential collapse of the structures.
Communications was also one of the main contributing factors cited by virtually every agency involved, the FAA, the military, police, fire fighters, medical crews, and hospitals, immediately after 9/11. So, the administration is right, this is not something new. And, people have been working on it. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), announced a $400 million bill to help first responders implement an interoperable communication system in March of 2003.
Admittedly, many politicians have tried to jump on the ‘tough on terror’ bandwagon by sponsoring, or co-sponsoring legislation. And, admittedly, many of those bills, like Senator Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA) efforts to put more guns in commercial cockpits, have been incredibly ill conceived. But Feinstein’s bill does not just address terrorism. An improved communication infrastructure would enhance public and first responder safety during more conventional public emergencies. With our regular earthquakes and annual wildfire season, California has a better inter-agency communication system than most states. Even so, on Which Way LA, a talk radio program produced by Southern California NPR station KCRW, guests from various state agencies recently all agreed that our communication infrastructure was in desperate need of modernization.
And Feinstein, an experienced Senator, is not just throwing this out there for a press blurb. Like other Homeland Security issues that directly concern California (ex. Seaport Security), she has been pressing this issue for more than a year and a half. Now, how much of this apparent no-brainer has been funded? Only $109 million made it into the $80 billion supplemental war and homeland security package in 2003. Of that money, nearly a quarter has been dispensed to non-urban areas.
Now, I hate to be a sour puss, but am I the only one that is troubled by the fact that we have record deficits and an enormous military budget (while still facing a $12+ billion dollar shortfall this year), yet our soldiers abroad still do not have enough body army or armored vehicles and our first responders in primary terrorist target urban areas are still using 1940’s communication technology here at home?