Wrong Questions Produce Wrong Answers : Part 4

Our Own Worst Enemy: Asking the Right Questions About Security to Protect You, Your Family, and America
By Colonel Randall J. Larsen USAF

(Page 4 of 5)

Both O'Reilly and Buchanan have told me that the U.S. should use military troops to secure our southern border. Apparently, neither was aware of a study submitted to Congress by the Department of Defense stating that it would require at least 350,000 troops to secure our two-thousand-mile-long southern border against drug smugglers. That's more than twice the number of troops we had in Iraq at the peak of the conflict in 2003. And even if we could secure our southern border, what would we do about our 5,500-mile border with Canada, or our 95,000 miles of shoreline?

We don't have an adequate amount of troops available, couldn't afford the mission if we did, and more importantly, what rules of engagement would we have them follow? Would we order our soldiers to shoot sixteen-year-old girls coming to America wanting to be nannies? What about middle-aged housekeepers? Obviously, there are TV pundits who also practice the D.C. tradition of "Ready! Shoot! Aim!" It does make for entertaining TV and sells commercial time, but this approach does nothing to make your family more secure. These people would be far more valuable to the debate if they just asked the right questions.

I understand many Americans' frustration with our porous borders, but we need to spend our limited resources on solutions that will really work. There are ways to significantly reduce illegal immigration, but I guarantee you there is no way to prevent terrorists from smuggling a bioweapon into this country. Furthermore, al Qaeda training manuals available on the Internet state that it's better to build weapons inside the country one plans to attack, rather than transport them across international borders.

In virtually every al Qaeda attack, this is precisely what the terrorists did, whether in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998, Bali in October 2002, Morocco in May 2003, Turkey in December 2003, Spain in March 2004, or London in July 2005. That is why biodefense requires different solutions than those required to reduce illegal immigration. And defending America against nuclear terrorism demands a completely different approach than protecting our food supply, hazardous chemicals stockpile, and information networks. We must start asking the right questions. The good news is that some people already are, and they will be highlighted in this book. The first example is Sheriff Donald Sowell of Grimes County, Texas, and the genius and potential benefits of his questions and solutions are not limited to a rural county in Texas.

I first met Sheriff Sowell during an interview on Homeland Security: Inside and Out, a public radio show that I co-host. Each week we interview someone from inside the nation's capital and someone from outside. Last year we conducted an interview with Howard Safir, a former police commissioner and fire commissioner of New York City. As Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's first police commissioner, Safir had led the 41,000 officers in the nation's largest police force. Immediately following this taping, we interviewed Sheriff Sowell. This county is one third the size of Delaware in terms of square miles, and has fewer residents than New York City has police officers. Sheriff Sowell has a force of twenty-one deputies.

Anyone who has ever run a 24/7 organization knows that an operation of this size will normally have two or three personnel on duty during an average twelve-hour shift. (Two thirds are always off-duty, some are on vacation or sick, and in the case of law enforcement, training days and court appearances have to be taken into account.) During a crisis, you could surge to eight to ten people per shift, but only for a short period. However, in a large-scale disaster like Katrina, you also need to consider that your first responders' priorities are going to be saving their own families and homes.

I asked Sheriff Grimes what he would do if there was a major disaster in Grimes County. He replied, "That's not just a rhetorical question; it happened last year. When Hurricane Rita was approaching the Texas coast, 3.2 million people evacuated. Several hundred thousand came through Grimes County."

I asked him, "Sheriff, how do you handle that type of law enforcement challenge?"

He replied, "Well . . . you just posse up."

He then went on to explain how he had developed emergency plans to use game wardens (who are sworn law enforcement officers in Texas) from other counties outside the evacuation zone. As the director of the Sheriffs' Association of Texas, he also had developed a program where sheriffs across the state could support the sheriff (or sheriffs) in a disaster zone. Finally, he has a reserve corps of deputies in Grimes County. Because of these proactive measures, Sowell was able to increase the size of his force by a factor of ten in a matter of hours. This was possible due to superior prior planning, and none of the plans required billions of your tax dollars.

Sheriff Sowell asked the right question before the crisis: "What can I do on my own to significantly improve my response capabilities?" The answer: "Posse up!" America needs more elected officials like Sheriff Sowell. America needs more posses.

Do not confuse posses with vigilantes. Vigilantes are people who take the law into their own hands. That is a bad idea, and I do not encourage it. When I refer to a posse, I am talking about two groups. The first is used to augment a law enforcement organization. They are properly trained, equipped, and under the direct command of a government law enforcement official. The second type of posse is a group of citizens or corporations who form a volunteer group that has no role in law enforcement. You will find examples of both types throughout this book.

Copyright © 2007 by Randall Larsen

About the Author

Colonel Randall J. Larsen, USAF (Ret)is the director of the Institute for Homeland Security, a senior associate at the Center for Biosecurity, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the cohost of public radio's Homeland Security: Inside and Out. Colonel Larsen served for thirty-two years in the Army and Air Force. His assignments ranged from duty as a nineteen-year-old Cobra pilot in the 101ST Airborne Division, with whom he flew 400 combat missions in Vietnam, to command of America's fleet of VIP aircraft at Andrews AFB, MD, and chairman of the Department of Military Strategy and Operations at the National War College.