The Return of Civil Defense?

The Bush administration is moving in the right direction. It needs to go a whole lot further.

by Rod D. Martin
February 27, 2003

Tom Ridge’s high-profile launch this week of Ready.gov, the Homeland Security Department’s online counterpart to its much-publicized ad campaign, represents a significant shift in government thinking on how to prepare for terrorism.

The question, though, remains:  Will that shift ultimately encompass real civil defense?

Unlike most government action to date, which has focused heavily on top-down actions to thwart terrorists, Ready.gov is all about you:  how will you plan for a disaster, how will you “duck-and-cover” in the event of a nuclear attack, and so forth.  It has links to Red Cross training, FEMA disaster preparedness manuals, and sections devoted to making an emergency kit, developing a family emergency plan, and surviving a dirty bomb.

All of this is excellent, both practically and philosophically:  government cannot protect every American from every contingency, and ought to empower them to defend themselves at need (this is, after all, the pur…