Improving DHS
Week 9: Improving Homeland Security
What would you do to improve homeland security? Write the topic in the subject line and describe it in the body. Be specific. Be creative. Be descriptive.
Expanding the Military Branch Involvement in Homeland Sercurity
If you look up the mission of the US Department of Defense, you will find:
"The mission of the Department of Defense is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and to protect the security of our country."
Likewise, if you look up the mission statement of the Department of Homeland Security, you will find:
“With honor and integrity, we will safeguard the American people, our homeland, and our values.”
It strikes me that these statements have a natural overlap: protecting the security of our country .... with the safeguard (of) the American people, (and) our homeland. The Defense Department and DHS have more in common than is thought of when we discuss improvements in homeland security. With a budget approximately one magnitude larger than the DHS, and a long history of waste and arguably misuse of American forces, how we utilize our Department of Defense needs to be rethought.
My recommendations for improvement in homeland security would be to allocate a far greater share of Department of Defense resources to the direct protection of our borders. This concept is not a stretch from what already is in place; the United States Coast Guard is contained within the DHS, currently, the only military branch located outside the Department of Defense. It plays a critical role in the port security, border security, and drug interdiction, while simultaneously providing support safety roles including maritime safety, and search and rescue.
Militarized forces can both protect and serve, yielding a far greater benefit for the tax dollars invested. Expanding all branches of the military to be actively involved in homeland security would benefit in not only providing far more resources, but changing the perception of our Defense Department as one of true "defense". Many view America still as imperialistic and far too involved in asserting our forces to "protect" American interests outside our borders.
For FY 2017, President Obama proposed the base budget of $523.9 billion for the Department of Defense. This funds the major branches:
- Air Force and Air Force Reserve
- Air National Guard
- Army and Army Reserve
- Army National Guard
- Marine Corps and Marine Corps Reserve
- Navy and Navy Reserve
Start by taking 35% of the efforts put forth by the active armed forces, and allocate them to direct "DHS related activities". And assign the reserve forces (Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard, Army Reserve, Army National Guard, Marine Corps Reserve and Navy Reserve) - and their missions to being primarily aligned with domestic security. Only in times of true warfare do the reserves and the 35% get "redeployed" internationally.
Some might view this as militarizing our borders, port of entry, etc. but a stronger homeland defense does provide stronger security for all. The resources which could be leveraged by allocating 35% would quadruple the efforts currently underway in securing borders, responding to disasters, fighting illegal trafficking, all while keeping forces in an active state, providing a framework for perpetual readiness. The US border is massive, yet a very manageable domain with a military our size.
You occasionally do find National Guard at our airports, or perhaps at the scene of a disaster; the concept is not new or foreign. But leveraging our Defense Department's vast resources to directly focus on our needs at home would yield a significant improvement in homeland security.
