Solutions to the terrorist threat: there are a number of practical steps that can be taken, from securing our borders to restoring multiple layers of defense.(Terrorism)(Cover Story)

On September 11,2001, the federal government failed in the most important of its few constitutionally enumerated functions--protecting our homeland from attack. The only effective defense of our country on that day came from a handful of desperate private citizens on United Flight 93, and the heroic efforts of state and local police, firemen, and emergency response personnel. Despite spending trillions of dollars on a globe-spanning military establishment, and an intelligence apparatus consisting of no fewer than 15 separate agencies, Washington left our country vulnerable to an unprecedented, murderous attack on our home soil.

Rational people would assume that addressing Washington's failure on 9/11 would require fundamental changes in the foreign, military, and intelligence policies that contributed to that debacle, as well as stern measures to hold accountable those officials who presided over it. After all, since the government failed the people, it is government, and not the people, that should bear the burdens and make the necessary changes.

Yet the independent 9/11 Commission recommends exactly the opposite course. It calls for radically enhancing the power of the federal government, and imposing expanded burdens on the rights and liberties of the people whom the government failed to protect on that dreadful morning three years ago.

Practical Steps

But we don't need "the government to increase its presence in our lives," as the 9/11 commissioners openly advocated. Here are a few simple measures that should be implemented:

* Secure our borders: The 9/11 Commission report incorrectly stated that "better technology and training to detect terrorist travel documents are the most important immediate steps to reduce America's vulnerability to clandestine entry," Of course, a person who simply wades across the poorly monitored Rio Grande doesn't need to worry about secure biometric travel documents at all. When the overwhelming majority of terrorists committing acts against the United States are foreign nationals, it is more important than ever to secure our nation's borders.

The 9/11 commissioners were right about one thing: it is elemental to national "security to know who is coming into the country." Though the 9/11 commissioners bad nothing to say about closing down illegal immigration from our southern border, this is perhaps the highest priority for national security. Monitoring and enforcing the time limits on the millions of visas issued to foreign tourists, students and business persons is a must. All of the 9/11 hijackers had been legally admitted into the U.S. at one time or another.