This article is the first of several commentaries appearing courtesy of Breaking Defense this week examining what America’s leaders should do next to secure our national security, 10 years after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

One of the lasting legacies of 9/11 that continues to affect the daily life of every American is the Department of Homeland Security. It sounds like something out of a bad dystopian novel, and it is: given its sheer size — over 225,000 employees — massive expense (estimated at $55 billion in 2010), and vast political reach, its very existence has fueled endless X-Files conspiracy theories. It is the perfect foil for every argument that all the U.S. government needed to cement its control over the population is a major attack that would scare Americans so witless they would sign their lives over to the gray men of the national security bureaucracy.