Key Factors

Based on your individual research, awareness of current events and prior studies, reflect on those key factors (domestic and/or international) that you feel played a prominent pre-9/11 role in either mitigating or exacerbating conditions that led to the 9/11 attacks on US CIKR. One of the factors would certainly include our own Grand Strategy – our governmental structure defined by the founding fathers. Our three branches of government – Executive, Judicial and Legislative – define how our Nation reacts to catastrophic incidents and directs response. As you will recall from either high school Civics or your other college courses, our president has no authority to establish law; his primary responsibilities are to run the government and establish policy. He owns no checkbook to fund any operations (e.g., counterterrorism, combating terrorism, food and agriculture safety, cyber security, etc.). The Legislative Branch – the Congress – approves and appropriates those funds and directs how they will expended.

Bottom Line:  If the Congress does not feel the pressure to fund combating terrorism measures (both anti-terrorism and counterterrorism), initiatives, programs or retaliatory measures, there will be no movement on the issue. You may not agree, but it’s part of our system of checks and balances.