A Watchful Eye: Politics is clouding the homeland-security picture. The reality and the rhetoric.

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 24-FEB-03

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Byline: Steven Brill

If you lock three of your car's four doors, is it three times safer than if you locked only one? Obviously not. If all four doors aren't secured, the car isn't safe. Then again, suppose a thief can't tell which of the doors are locked, and if he tries to open one that is locked he gets an electric shock that disables him and the police immediately show up to arrest him. In that case, having three locked doors is indeed three times better than one and infinitely better than if a thief knows that no doors are ever locked.

That, in a nutshell, describes what is going to become an increasingly partisan debate in advance of the 2004 elections over homeland security--a battle in which Sen. Hillary Clinton fired the first shot last month, when she called homeland security "a myth." As Orange Alert and pre-Iraq-war jitters intensify, it's a fight that's certain to continue to heat up, and likely to flare out of control when another terrorist attack occurs.

Here are five realities to keep in mind to help cut through the rhetoric:

Saying the country is not doing enough will always be true. Senator Clinton was right. After all,...

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