Source: www.sddt.com

Coast Guard not equipped to ensure port security
By Larry Stirling
Monday, December 20, 2004

There are a lot of wonderful things about the U.S. Coast Guard, but national harbor security is not one of them.

I do not wish for a moment to, in any way, denigrate the brave men and women of the Coast Guard operating on the water. There is no doubt that in traditional tasks like search and rescue, navigation assistance, and other familiar and popular roles, the U.S. Coast Guard is the best in the world.

Many lives have been saved, and many brave men and women serve every hour of every day to be available to the seagoing public. I applaud them.

But, as in most government agencies, change comes slowly. The Coast Guard is today the modern incarnation of the original navigation-aid and seagoing, anti-smuggler arm of the infant U.S. government set up by Alexander Hamilton when he was Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington.

The fact that the Coast Guard maintains its very traditional stance would be both quaint yet reassuring -- except for the devastating change in the world evidenced by the vicious attack of Sept. 11, 2001.

The United States is not safely insulated by its two oceans from attack, if it ever was.

It is the Coast Guard that the United States Congress entrusted with the mission of defending our ports.

Ask anyone. The Coast Guard is not doing the job and, sadly, neither is anyone else.

I am not telling tales out of school by asserting publicly that our ports and
harbors are vulnerable. Federal studies and the national media have covered the subject repeatedly.

San Diegans have a special interest because we have a very special port.

Terrorists now own weapons that can be fired from 20 miles off shore into port installations.