Analysis: Shutdown strains US national security as weak links start to fail

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Analysis: Shutdown strains US national security as weak links start to fail

J.J. Green | [e-mail]
October 7, 2025, 8:40 PM

{snip}

While the government shutdown continues, core national security missions are still operating. Counterterrorism and counterintelligence cases continue to be processed. Border security, airport screening, the Coast Guard and other front-line Homeland Security units remain on duty.

But the structure beneath that surface is deteriorating. The support systems that keep these missions resilient are thinning, and the risk of an avoidable failure is rising.

Aviation is the clearest warning sign. ... Air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration screeners are working without pay and in short-staffed facilities. The result is growing sick calls, widespread delays, mounting overtime and growing fatigue. Fatigue is a well-known amplifier of safety risk.

This is not a hypothetical concern. It is an operating environment where error margins are shrinking. ... Cyber defense is more vulnerable today than it was a week ago. With a large share of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency furloughed, 24-hour monitoring, incident response surge capacity and sector information sharing are reduced.

{snip}

JJ Green is WTOP's National Security Correspondent. He reports daily on security, intelligence, foreign policy, terrorism and cyber developments, and provides regular on-air and online analysis. He is also the host of two podcasts: Target USA and Colors: A Dialogue on Race in America.
[e-mail]
@JJGreenWTOP

[Lovie777]

1. The present administration and Republican Party......

are the weakest link. Under them while they fucking up the country and attacking their fellow citizens a wrecking is coming soon.

[enough]

2. They want the county so weak that people will be clamoring for the

great dictator/police state.