Thus, the progress was, in fact, achieved through the intergovernmental ability of those commanding our country to have their requests travel both ways, and the DHS thus enabled Washington to reach the average policeman.
Early criticisms of the DHS, though existent, have now all but been erased. However, these criticisms at first included references of redundancy. Many thus questioned whether the DHS was actually necessary especially in the aftermath of the attacks. This matter was corner-stoned by the belief of many that security had indeed not been improved but rather nominal measures were taken to simply look as if the Bush administration was being tough on terrorism. Despite such criticism, the DHS, in hindsight, as there were no known terrorist attacks on American soil since, one can state that the DHS has achieved some security. However, one cannot say whether it prevented...
So far, under the Obama administration, there has been close analysis by department head, Janet Napolitano, into the effectiveness of the department overall and to that effect, the color coded system implemented by the previous administration was removed last year, as it seemed to lose its effectiveness. However, the overall mission of the DHS still stands, and it is up to future administration to determine whether it has been an effective addition the U.S. government or whether it needs to be trimmed down in these times of budget crisis.
