Effective Means of Homeland Security - Essay Example

They have to achieve this target by keeping collateral damage, financial damage, and social damage on the lower end. This definition of the effectiveness of the US Department of Homeland Security constitutes of various facts such as the security services cannot stop all the terrorist attacks from taking place, the services have to create a strategy for both the long run and the shorter run and the services should counter-terrorist activities while balancing citizens interests, minimizing financial cost and making sure that citizens freedom is never at stake.

Security services should devise plans that are foolproof and can prevent most of the attacks from taking place, this does not mean that their plans can stop a hundred per cent of the attacks that are being planned and implemented. Even if the Homeland Security Department cannot stop all the attacks, their measures are not necessarily ineffective. If at any particular point in time, no attacks are taking place, this does not represent that the strategy implemented by the department has become successful and is of utmost effectiveness. Security services should always have a short-term and long-term strategy in position to counter both short-term and long-term plans. If they have only short term plans, then they are overlooking the longer plans that terrorist activity conductors have prepared. The services should plan their measures by the way terrorist organizations behave, they set long-term goals, all individuals are committed to a common goal and they are ready to experience the utmost difficulty for the achievement of their cause. Terrorists are ready are actively participating in a never-ending war with security forces all around the world including Homeland Security, thus it is the duty of the security department to continue creating a long-term strategy. While developing a strategy to counter terrorist activities, policy developers and strategy developers should ensure that their strategies and tactics do not harm the liberty and democratic rights of civilians. If a balance between tactics and demographic rights is not conducted, the sole purpose which is to safeguard the rights of the citizens of the US is completely loss and the time, and Homeland Security services end up being ineffective. According to Benjamin Franklin, if individuals pay a high cost of liberty to attain short-term security and safety, then these individuals have no right to safety and neither liberty (Hanson, 87).

The Homeland Security Department of the US is said to be functioning effectively if they can prevent terrorist attacks, develop and implement long and short-term counter-terrorism measures and strike a balance between the demographic rights of civilians and their measures to protect civilian rights.