Quote of the Day (R. James Woolsey, on the Alleged Security of the U.S. Electrical Grid)

“The transformers are well protected — they’re 30 yards from the side of the highway; they’re well fenced-in by cyclone fences and by big signs that point to the transformers and say, ‘Danger! Do not touch.’ Well, the system is pretty well-designed to keep out, let’s say, a drunk teenager on Saturday night.”—Former CIA head R. James Woolsey, explaining ironically how America’s electrical system is a national-security disaster waiting to happen, in a July 15, 2011 address at the Chautauqua Institution, quoted in Nick Glunt, “Woolsey: U.S. Energy Can Be Target of Terrorist Attacks,” The Chautauquan Daily, July 16-17, 2011

The Chautauqua Institution might have felt that, as perhaps the best-known of the five speakers for its “American Intelligence” theme week, R. James Woolsey would be a great way to end five days that sparked great audience interest. Instead, what they—and the audience gathered at the Amphitheater on Friday morning—got was something of a mixed bag.

True, if you put aside his folksy but commanding presence, Woolsey said nothing particularly out of the ordinary—or, as a fellow boarder at my inn cried out in exasperation, “He didn’t offer any solutions to the problems! What good is that?”

And yet, how many members of Congress—or, for that matter, the administration—are even mentioning the problem of electrical-griod security? At the moment—a very long moment at that—they’re simply having trouble averting a shutdown of the government. How can we expect them to show foresight, let alone deal responsibly with the people who elected them in the first place?

Perhaps, then, it takes someone to get up and repeatedly state the problem—something along the lines of the message of Cato the Elder: “Carthage must be destroyed!” The ancient Roman repeated that message until it was finally heeded, and perhaps something similar is needed in this case.