But terrorism challenges rational people to come to grips with the irrational, to think about the unthinkable. And it compels local, state and national leaders to commit to, and rely upon, unprecedented levels of mutual assistance and cooperation in the event of a terrorism incident. These are challenges we are not yet fully prepared to meet. Last Friday s exercise brought that lesson home. As local police, fire and emergency medical personnel worked through a fictional, but all too plausible, scenario of a chemically-laced pipe bomb explosion on an Amtrak train, they learned what types of equipment, training and planning are needed to improve existing response capabilities.
Answers require close calibration of local, state and federal interests and authority.
It is a difficult, and potentially costly, balance to strike. But given that time and distance between a terrorist attack and an effective response are measured in human lives, that balance must be found, and funded. Since 1997, the federal government has spent several billion dollars on domestic preparedness programs. Late last year, the congressionally mandated Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction reported frustration and confusion among local and state officials trying to navigate a busy bureaucratic menu of federal counter-terrorism agencies and programs. The Advisory Panel also observed a lack of consensus on the nature and extent of the domestic terrorism threat, compounding the difficulty of needs assessments and budget planning.