WASHINGTON -- Washington "will do everything conceivable, everything humanly and technologically possible to preserve our way of life and our citizens," says Tom Ridge, director of the U.S. Office of Homeland Security. Unfortunately, the Bush administration seems ready to threaten our way of life in the name of protecting us.
First, President George W. Bush wants a new Department of Homeland Security, to consolidate everything from border control to emergency relief to agricultural inspections. Second, the Justice Department is preparing Operation TIPS (terrorism information and prevention system).
Creating an intrusive new bureaucracy is a curiously liberal approach for a supposedly conservative president. Yet there is no reason to believe that another department will make America safer. Obviously, interagency cooperation and coordination are desirable, but consolidation won't necessarily deliver either.