Value Is…
Jason Mazzone at Concurring Opinions writes that the new DHS grant allocation process is based on best protecting ”national monuments or icons [that] attract the interests of terrorists.” I have not confirmed the source of his suspicions but the idea that a group of government employees can properly assess the terrorist risk of targets throughout the United States is ludicrous. Terrorists are opportunists. If they can cause fear and anger they consider themselves successful (that is why one big attack every few years is more effective than lots of little ones). They could care less about Mount Rushmore or the Grand Canyon but large populated areas where people feel safe have been prime targets (Cafes, Trains, Office Buildings, the Pentagon).
Of course blindly allocating funds to states with the most office buildings is not only infeasible, it may have little effect on the safety of these structures. Short of anti-aircraft artillery, the best way to protect the Twin Towers was locking the cockpits of planes. The only way to completely thwart the 1993 attacks was to catch either the perpetrators after the planning but before the execution or stop the vehicle in a location where on the stop detonation would have caused minimal damage.
Perhaps DHS should spend more time talking to some real security experts instead of substituting terrorists’ values with our own.