ON SEPTEMBER 14, MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR Mitt Romney stood before the Heritage Foundation to outline his thoughts on how to best wage the war on terror. In addition to being widely considered a likely candidate for president in 2008, Romney brings impressive credentials to a discussion on battling terrorism. In 2002, Romney was in charge of the Salt Lake City Olympics, which took place a few short months after the 9/11 attacks. For Romney, thwarting terrorism has long been more than merely a theoretical concern.
The thrust of Romney’s formulation is that battling terrorism consists of three basic prongs: Response (such as fire engines and ambulances going to the site of an attack), protection (such as concrete barricades or checking the backpacks of New York City subway riders), and prevention. Romney strongly feels that prevention is what will make us safest, and that important ingredients of prevention–such as intelligence gathering–should receive special emphasis.
