Homeland Security Essay

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Homeland Security and the Critical Infrastructures it Protects
Homeland security in itself is an over encompassing concept that includes many agencies that "prevent terrorist attacks, defend our borders, enforce immigration laws, secure cyberspace, and ensure resilience to disasters" (United States Department of Homeland Security [U.S. DHS], 2010). The missions of the DHS are critical and vast. I’m going to explain some of the basics of this organization in terms of internal and external conflicts, and why we desperately need this organization needs to be strong and always ready. Also, I will further discuss the critical infrastructures the DHS protects, and the programs that have been set into place to protect our critical infrastructures.
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Most of this is very accurate, but some of this want can be fueled by the media, “Americans want more homeland security than they need. That is the politics of homeland security in a nutshell. It results from two things. First, cognitive biases cause people to worry more about terrorists than they should and to demand more protection from them than cost-benefit analysis recommends. Secondly, U.S. citizens ' information about terrorism comes largely from politicians and government organizations with an interest in reinforcing excessive fears” (Friedman, 2011, p. …show more content…
The Transportation Security Agency has had to change their Tactics Techniques and Procedures to adapt to what the terrorist are doing. The attacks of 9/11 were deadly with even such a simple attack strategy. If we do not maintain and constantly strive to improve our National Critical Protection Plan, the next attack could prove to be drastically worse. I could only imagine if there were a terrorist attack on a nuclear reactor, or if they manage to steal some nuclear material and expose it to a large population. Another extremely deadly attack, but simple, is to bomb a dam causing massive flooding especially when so much of our country is vulnerable right

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