In what may be a first, CESY has put out a press release touting Tom McMillen's blog entry at the Huffington Post.
Tom McMillen
12.28.2005
Munich Revisited
In September of 1972, I was 20-years old and happy to be playing forward on the US basketball team at the Olympics in Munich. The Olympic Village was a special place to me-a seemingly peaceful world focused on order, competition, the purity of sport-it was a friendly community inhabited by young disciplined, hopeful athletes participating in a global contest.
But all of that changed on the terrible morning of September 5th when I was awakened by teammates to learn that Palestinian terrorists had stormed the dorm where the Israeli delegation was housed. Deeply shocked and alarmed, I rushed over to that dorm and saw a sole, ski-masked terrorist standing up on the balcony. He was one of the men holding the Israeli athletes--and in some ways the world itself--hostage, for the scene was viewed live on televisions all over the world. Over a matter of hours, the Olympic Village went from a place where there was no visible security to an armed camp, with on every corner, policemen ironically dressed in sweatsuits carrying Uzis. But they were too late. The world would never seem quite so safe again to me. And the events in the following days--the murder of the Israeli athletes and the abortive rescue in which all the athletes were killed--were certainly the end of my political innocence.
That time, the failure of preparedness, the shock, the confusion, the horror, have all been recreated in Steven Spielberg's emotionally charged new film Munich. Yet as I watched it recently, I couldn't help thinking that little has changed: just as the Olympic Village was woefully unprepared for the attacks on the Israeli athletes and the nation they represented, so the United States remains equally vulnerable-even after 9/11- to the threat of terrorist attacks. And just as the Israeli response to Munich resulted in more death and destruction and no greater protection for its citizens, so too has the US fumbled its way in the aftermath of 9/11.
Certainly, we have suffered greatly at the hands of terrorists. Though after 9/11 there was a frenzy of activity, in truth little tangible difference has been made in our safety. The 9/11 commission, recently disbanded, has warned us of coming dangers, of the perilous consequences of our lack of readiness. Tom Kean, former chairman of that commission has warned, "We believe that terrorists will strike again." To put some numbers to this threat, the director of the federally funded Center for Mass Destruction Defense recently predicted that 1.6 million citizens would be killed, maimed, burned, or sickened if a Hiroshima-size weapon were set off by terrorists in lower Manhattan. With the times so perilous, the consequences so dire, why haven't we done more? The culprits are the usual ones: pork-barrel politics, complacency, misguided funding priorities, and a certain head-in-the sand attitude.
If I could have one wish for the New Year, it would be that our elected officials put politics aside and take the steps essential to protecting our nation:
First of all, we must fund our homeland security needs by level of risk and not by politics. Pork-barrel politics may be standard procedure for transportation projects but can not be permitted when the nation's security is at stake. If members of Congress can not resist political pressures, a commission, modeled after the one in charge of military base closures, should be created. Such an independent commission could prepare a list of critical infrastructure targets which must be protected-a list, by the way, which the Department of Homeland Security was required by law to produce over a year ago and which still doesn't exist. Such a commission could provide funding recommendations to Congress based upon risk assessment and cost benefit analysis, independent of political wrangling. As with BRAC (Base Realignment and Reduction Commission), Congress would accept or reject funding priorities on an up or down vote, a process that would make much sense than the current blanket provision of funds nationwide, regardless of level of risk.
Second, we must establish a World Security Organization modeled after the World Health Organization. We sorely need a global organization dedicated to mobilizing the resources of the many nations needing stability. Over 50% of the funds spent on global security is spent by the United States, while nations like China and India spend very little, less than 5% of worldwide governmental security spending. While these nations may think that global terrorism, since it is not a threat within their borders, does not affect them, they must realize that they, by necessity, have a huge stake in a stable, terror-free world. China, for example, has amassed over a trillion dollar trade surplus with the US just since 1990. Without a stable world and a stable US economy, where would China's economy be? Isn't it time for the US to ask for significant world support for the war on terror?
Third, we must engage our young people who do not believe terrorism presents a danger to them. A recent CBS poll revealed that most young Americans think another terrorist attack in the US is not likely soon. This attitude is reminiscent of beliefs during the "Phony War" of World War II when many French and British citizens were lulled early in the war into a false sense of complacency by a temporary cessation of hostilities. When 85% of 18-year-olds in the US have no connection with the military and its responsibilities, how can they understand that we are engaged in a war on terror? We should establish a Youth Emergency Corp. , modeled on the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corp., which would require every 18-year old in America who is not serving in the military to complete an emergency preparedness program led by first responders in communities across the country. This program, by stressing first aid, preparedness, and vigilance would be a "force multiplier" for our first responders in the war on terror and could also prepare millions of young Americans for the possibility of a natural or man-made disaster.
Fourth, we must TODAY secure nuclear material globally, not a decade from now. A nuclear detonation in Washington, DC, or NYC would be shattering to our democracy. The Nunn-Lugar Threat Reduction Program has had significant accomplishments, helping to deactivate almost 6,000 nuclear warheads worldwide, but how can we live with the fact that, at present funding levels, it will take another decade to secure dangerous nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union? It is no exaggeration to say that, at this very moment, a small container of plutonium and highly enriched uranium could be sold to terrorists intent on detonating a nuclear bomb in the US. We need an effort as intense as the Manhattan Project, not to produce weapons, but to immediately secure them and to provide assistance to American's friends to help detect and interdict weapons of mass destruction. We must urge Congress to appropriately fund this essential effort.
Finally, we need the will to finance responsibly the war on terror. In these critical times, our country needs leadership. But where is the Abraham Lincoln, the Franklin D. Roosevelt, who asks the American people to make the sacrifices necessary to win? If new taxes are needed to fight this war, let's responsibly enact them and not expect future generations to pay our bills. Just as the War Bonds of WWII provided a way to express a spirit of sacrifice and contribute to the war effort, so too could a dedicated tax help rally our nation to the cause of defending our homeland.
Some may find it difficult to imagine America thrust into chaos and anarchy by terrorist attacks, but Hurricane Katrina has made us see the sobering reality of how thin our margin of safety and order is. Hurricanes are devastating, but not malign. When we are facing an enemy like Al Qaeda which has proclaimed its right-the necessity-to kill millions of Americans, we must strengthen not only the critical infrastructure of our nation, but the backbone of our citizens and leaders as well. If we do not, I fear that revisiting Munich-or 9/11-is only a matter of time. As the events of September 1972 and its aftermath made apparent, retaliation, retribution and vengeance are not the answer; prevention is.
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