Homeland Security

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Homeland Security

The United States of America used to be confident in the knowledge that the country was safe from war and acts of terrorism due to the fact that America is surrounded by oceans and seas that effectively deter any violent attacks upon the country. The Japanese proved this theory wrong when they successfully attacked Pearl Harbor and engaged the United States as one of the two countries involved in the Second World War, the other country being Germany.

Upon the defeat of the Japanese and Germans, the peacetime era was ushered in and the United States somehow became involved in keeping peace the world over, effectively making the country the world police force. The country was effectively detached from the acts of war and terror across the world. The United States was again deemed to be impenetrable and capable of defending itself by air, land, or sea.

President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Securi...

Organizational chart of the United States Departme...

English: Full Ready.gov logo with tagline and trad...

Indeed, as a military force, the country is something to be reckoned with.

The concentration by then should have shifted to protecting the homeland from the threats posed by those countries and political leaders whom the United States openly opposed. By 1997, the term Homeland Defense was thrown around a lot by the Department of Defense and coined in order to describe their idea of an organization or agency whose sole responsibility would be to defend the homeland during times of necessity or foreign attack. (History, March, 2007)

But the country let its guard down and became lax, homeland security wise. The National Defense Panel had warned the country's leaders as early as 1997 that the U.S. mainland and its territories were becoming a target for terrorist threats and suggested a redirection of the security attention towards...