America The Vulnerable

The British car bomb attacks served as a reminder that Islamists are intent on bringing the fight to the West. This comes as no surprise to the United States but what is surprising is how vulnerable America remains today. In a recent column, David Ignatius says his country has been perilously weakened by the rift in its society:

"America's political disharmony is scary. But so is the lack of practical preparation for thenext attack. With all the emotional discussion of 9/11 - all the commissions and studies and new federal agencies - you might expect that we had gotten that part right. But we haven't.

"Despite spending billions of dollars on supposed bio-defense, the United States is still woefully unprepared for a biological attack. If you doubt it, listen to Dr. Tara O'Toole, director of the Center for Biosecurity in Baltimore and one of the nation's leading experts on the problem. "More than five years after the anthrax mailings, the US still lacks a coherent plan for conduct of operations to guide the healthcare sector's response to mass-casualty care in the event of a bioterrorist attack or other large-scale catastrophe," she told a House committee in March.

"And nuclear terrorism? Despite repeated warnings by intelligence officials about this threat, the US still is unprepared to detect or counter these weapons. Listen to Fred Ikle, a former undersecretary of defense and the author of "Annihilation from Within" a grim assessment of America's vulnerability to attack. "To detect smuggled uranium bombs, we still lack the right tools," Ikle said in a recent interview. He noted that the Homeland Security Department has not developed such "active interrogation" devices because of possible risk to bystanders, and the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency hasn't done so because of inadequate funding.

"In a politically healthy nation, the news from Britain would have a galvanizing effect. Politicians and the public would pull together and take appropriate steps to prepare for future terrorist attacks on America. There was a moment of shared purpose after 9/11. It's frightening how totally that mood of national unity has dissipated. I can think of lots of people to blame for the current polarization, but that's not the point. The point is to get serious, and get ready."