The expense involved in making our catastrophic terrorism targets less attractive is far from overwhelming, especially when measured against the $250 million the US has been spending every day since the spring of 2003 on the war in Iraq. The LNG facility outside Boston would be considerably safer in a remote location near the harbor’s entrance or farther offshore, which would mean tankers wouldn’t need to transit so close to a densely populated area. If attacked, the fire would be spectacular, but the consequences would not. The Coast Guard should also do more to reach out to the people who live, work, and play on Boston’s waterfront to educate the very people who might witness a dry run or actual event. Our most important and largely untapped national assets are everyday citizens, who too often are kept in the dark about the details of potential terrorist attacks. We would do well to heed Thomas Jefferson’s famous admonition, “A nation’s best defense is an educated citizenry.”
Stephen Flynn, a former US Coast Guard commander, is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national-security studies at the Council of Foreign Relations.
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