Obama's Homeland Security Plan

I watched all three debates.  I kept waiting to hear what Obama's plan was for Homeland Security, but I never did.  However, in the first full day of his Presidency, his Homeland Security blueprint was put on whitehouse.gov this morning.  If you click on the title of this blog, you will be taken to that plan.  In just briefly reading over the plan, I'm shocked at how little it will actually change.  The two major differences is that President Obama plans to "responsibly end the war in Iraq" to focus all attention on "the right battlefield in Afghanistan."  The National media will interrupt it this way, that Bush's policies in Iraq have failed and that the only course of action for President Obama is withdrawal from Iraq.  When in reality, the surge has worked.  Over the past couple of months there has been more and more articles on the Homeland Security blogs talking about the Iraqi security forces taking more and more responsibility about their own security (all good signs!)

The other bullet point in Obama's Homeland Security plan deals with updating the dangerously old Critical Infrastructure in the U.S.  Obama plans to develop a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank.  The reinvestment bank will be responsible for repairing and protecting the Nation's transportation sector (highways, aviation, rail).  However, it appears that all Infrastructure sectors will be address, as they should be.

As a whole, this plan looks solid.  President Obama has kept a number of Bush's policies regarding Homeland Security but has also added a few new points that went without attention under G.W. Bush.  

Finally, I'm sure some of you are wondering about Immigration.  Well you might be waiting for a while.  Border security has a small two line statement under Critical Infrastructure (which, is categorized improperly).  However, with that being said, I would expect some changes to come about in Obama's border policy, his Homeland Security secretary has a little bit of experience in dealing with Border security issues.