Getting our money's worth?

In this month's Atlantic Monthly Richard Clarke refers to a comparison by Mother Jones of the costs of the Iraq war and the projected costs of various aspects of homeland security. While the comparison was made based on the FY2005 budget, I suspect that, in general, the situation has not changed much.

Here are some comparisons:

• Basic security upgrades for mass transit in large cities - $6 billion, or 20 days spending in Iraq.
• Equip all US airports with machines to screen baggage for explosives - $3 billion, or 10 days spending in Iraq.
• Security upgrades at 361 US ports - $1.1 billion, or 4 days spending in Iraq.
• Radiation portals for US ports to detect dirty bombs in cargo - $290 million, or 23 hours spending in Iraq.
• Help local firefighters prepare for terrorist attacks - $36.8 billion, or 122 days spending in Iraq.
• Get local emergency medical crews ready for terrorist attacks - $1.4 billion or 5 days spending in Iraq.

Since 9/11 we've spent only 14% of our defense money on homeland security. That's in line with the administration's view that fighting terrorists over there is stopping them from coming here. It seems to me that fighting over there is only increasing the number of terrorists in the world. Sooner or later, they will strike here in a big way unless we start to change our approach.