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While the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks dramatically altered the mindset of millions of Americans, Cindy Williams, a former Pentagon analyst, predicted the military services will resist any dramatic alteration of their spending priorities.

"There is going to be an increase in military spending," said Williams, currently a research scientist at MIT. "The military services are putting together lists of what they think is important. These lists are largely what they had in mind before September 11—the same weapons systems, but more of them. There is an impetus to proceed along the same old path when what we need is a very new path."

Williams' remarks came during a talk sponsored by the School of International and Public Affairs Institute of War and Peace Studies.

She added that some of the changes in the Department of Defense's spending requests will be rhetorical in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Every weapons system is going to be re-named 'Homeland Defense,' " said Williams. "Anything that anybody wants in the Pentagon is going to be called 'Homeland Defense.' "

Just over 24 hours after Williams' remarks, President George W. Bush, in a televised address to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 20, announced he was establishing the Homeland Defense Security Office as a cabinet-level position. The office will be headed by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge.

Williams advocated a defense policy that incorporates diplomatic, military and economic components, including cooperating with any state that will help the United States track down terrorism.

"We need to change our policies in way that focuses on terrorism as the main problem," she said.

In his Sept. 20 address, Bush appeared to embrace such a multi-pronged solution.

"We will direct every resource at our command—every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence and every necessary weapon of war—to the disruption and defeat of the global terror network," the president declared.

Williams also noted that the United States spends $10 billion annually to battle terrorism, plus an additional $2.5 billion to protect critical infrastructure. She noted that half of the $10 billion is spent on the physical security of government and 3 percent is spent to protect the civilian population.