Shored Up for Disaster, Area Officials Still Fearful (washingtonpost.com)

There is no boogey man.
No anthrax attacks. Missing missles and weapons and no attacks, no hiijack attempts, no suicide bombers... these are justifications for the dispensation of largess through the government. First you create the fears, then you take the money,then you make the fears go away.
People don't have to have bad intentions to do bad things. But it is still very very poor government.
The only difference between a population of good and productive people every thing else less desireable is the quality of the government.