For Nevada—and in particular, Las Vegas—this is a preeminent concern, Reid said last week, during a conference call with Nevada's top homeland security and law enforcement officials in which Reid wanted to discuss general issues of homeland safety (as well as give everyone an opportunity to air his or her complaints about the Bush administration). And that's because the consequences of an attack on our region, which nobody doubts is a target due to its multibillion-dollar tourist industry, libertine atmosphere and multiple defense-related installations, would be drastic. Even more so than for other metropolitan areas around the country.
"Our problem [in Nevada] is unique," said Reid. "We have tens of thousands of people visiting here every day, and our responsibility to them is just as great as it is to our own."
Beyond the obvious havoc it would wreak, researchers have stated that an attack (even a minor one in relation to the terror of 9/11) could debilitate the tourism industry in Southern Nevada and cripple our economy. Which is why our state was flabbergasted when Las Vegas was demoted from the federal government's list of top 35 areas in need of special anti-terrorism protection. The citizens (more vulnerable to fear than the actual object of their fear) because they came under the impression that their home languishes in security—government's paramount obligation to them—and the bureaucrats because they understood it to mean less money for them to work with.
Both were right. And so Reid asked the conference call's participants, who he says deal, on a day-to-day basis, with hometown security ("which is where homeland security starts"): What can we do—what do we need that we don't have—to be safer?
Sheriff Bill Young was on the line, and he responded: We, Metro, need more money to enhance the rapidity of our first response system, the radio space for which has been hindered by the feds.
Secretary Treasurer of the Professional Firefighters of Nevada Scott Gorgon said: 9/11 showed us where we are vulnerable, and we would like to get more adequate staffing—7,500 new firefighters over the next seven years. Every year the Bush administration diminishes us.
Dale Carrison, chairman of the Nevada commission of homeland security, said: The monies we have right now aren't enough to cure our interoperability problems, which prevent cops, firefighters and other agencies from communicating with each other.
Nevada Director of Homeland Security Giles Vanderhoof replied: Right now it's too cumbersome of a process, to get money to states and local agencies. Because few people are working on the grants, and they make us jump through hoops to get them.
Reid, a former police officer, said he has been working on appropriating more money to change this, and that he will continue to do so until he feels America is safer than it was five years ago. The following day, his office unveiled the Real Security Act of 2006, legislation backed by his party that promises to solve the problems of Iraq and terrorism, and to provide more monies to areas that the 9/11 commission recommends to improve upon. (For example: $500 million to interoperability grants; $790 million for first responders; $320 million to enhance border security; and more than $5 billion on transportation security. All of which, of course, is less than the $300 billion already expended on the war in Iraq, but even the Democrats know they can't change the course there without spending billions of dollars themselves.) The Real Security Act of 2006 even employs rhetoric typical of the Republican Party, such as "tough and smart strategies," "taking the fight to the terrorists," and "finishing the job."
But in the end the fundamental question still remains: Will we be prepared? Because everyone knows security is not a matter of monies bestowed or political parties in charge, but rather, of individual leaders warranting people's trust in their individual ability to lead not if, but when, calamity strikes.
No one has offered a satisfying answer to this. Not during Reid's conference call last week nor any other occasion I've witnessed. And so the question persists.