In testimony before congress, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff stated that protecting every possible target in America against attack would bankrupt the nation. I have no doubt that such an overly simplistic statement is true. But what of our current priorities:

Mr. Chertoff, since he was named secretary in February 2005, has talked of the need to make spending risk-based, but his department has also been lambasted for compiling a list of possible targets that included a petting zoo, a bourbon festival and a popcorn factory, while at the same time it cut antiterrorism grants to high-risk cities like Washington and New York.

More from the New York Times article:

“[bin Laden] understood that one tool he had in waging war against the United States was to drive us crazy, into bankruptcy, trying to defend ourselves against every conceivable threat.”

[The Department of Homeland Security] is spending $9 on security per airplane passenger, but less than half a penny on each mass transit rider.

Clearly, we cannot go overboard in the measures we take to protect ourselves from threats. One does have to wonder what the $300+ billion we've spent on Iraq would have paid for however.