A 'crisis of competence' in civil services. (Convention Speeches).

Tennessee's retiring U.S. Senator Fred Thompson paints a pessimistic picture of America's ability to deal with a world torn by terrorism.

In a luncheon speech, he expressed worry about whether the nation could get beyond the short-term military issues confronting Washington today to come to a long-term understanding of the responsibilities of the American people to the rest of the world.

Referring to U.S. military power spread around the world in a variety of peacekeeping missions, Thompson asked, "What about the responsibilities that go along with the military superiority? What about our position in the world in the years ahead?"

As Congress assembles the new Department of Homeland Security and fights the war on terrorism on several fronts, he said that most Americans have yet to come face-to-face with the real costs of the effort. Thompson said that it doesn't make any sense to have a number of agencies related to national security--the Coast Guard and Immigration and Naturalization Service, for example--all working separately. But, he asked, could Washington pull these 22 agencies together and make them work as one?

That's part of the challenge.

While the Republican Party supports President Bush's proposal for homeland security, Thompson also wondered whether the taxpayers could afford the $38 billion price tag, which could rise to $48 billion, according to Brookings Institution estimates. And what about the expense to state and local governments? he asked.

To the surprise of no one in the DoubleTree Hotel dining room, he declared, "I don't think we have a clue yet about what all this is going to cost."

Pointing to the mismanagement, waste, and fraud that has come to be part of the federal government, he agreed with President Bush that the homeland security managers will need flexibility with the civil service system to make the department work. That means discipline for poor performers and a shorter timetable for workers who have appealed management decisions. He referred to the traditional civil-service employment model as a "crisis of competence."

"We're losing the people we need to keep and keeping the people we need to lose," he said.

Without flexibility in the hiring and management of personnel, Thompson said, the president would veto any homeland security bill, which was stalled in the Senate along party lines.

As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the lawmaker and former and future actor said he has no doubt that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has the capability of developing nuclear weapons to go along with his stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons.

He said the Bush strategy to present the U.S. case against Iraq to the United Nations was "on the right track' but he wondered whether the administration has given enough thought to events that would follow such an attack.

"We can't do that [the aftermath] from 30,000 feet," he said, cautioning that bombing runs would be the easy part. What happens after that?

As the country deals with homeland security and other fallout from terrorist attacks, Thompson said, most agree that America has "a target painted on our back."

Nonetheless, he added, "we are just beginning to get down into the weeds to determine what it is going to take in terms of dollars and keeping balance with civil liberties."

NCEW member Bob Wimer is editorial page editor of The News & Advance in Lynchburg, Virginia. E-mail him at [e-mail]