According to a study issued last year by a bipartisan group of
national security and budget experts, the United States government
has spent more than $2.8 trillion on counterterrorism since 9/11.
That amount represents 15 percent of the nation's discretionary
budget1! It is a virtual certainty that the amounts
spent in other countries have all increased and continue to do so
as global tensions rise and disparate forces use social media to
fan the flames of discontent and disseminate the means to
perpetrate seemingly random acts of mass violence against
"soft targets."
As we have all come to learn, "soft targets" include
churches, synagogues and mosques as well as schools, malls,
restaurants, concert venues and hotels. They are all places where
people gather to worship, learn, shop, eat, sleep and play. While
no one should dispute that the government has the primary
responsibility for keeping these places safe and secure, one need
only look at the news on any day to
