(CBS) It is amazing how much time we spend pointing fingers and laying blame for leaks and security breaches – whether it is the argument over who leaked the latest national intelligence estimate on terrorism, or the debate about who did more to fight terrorism before 9/11 – Clinton or Bush.

I wonder if it is all worthwhile, the endless political posturing and accusations about how the other guy is to blame, with little substantive discussion on how to protect the national security of the United States.

It’s all pretty confusing to the American people. And amidst the partisan finger pointing, there are very real threats that we should be talking about:

The radicalization of the Islamic world, particularly young Muslims;

Bombings by a persistent Taliban and al Qaeda-led insurgency in Afghanistan;

The urgent need to secure loose nuclear materials around the world, particularly in the former Soviet Union;

Five years after 9/11, our failure to set clear priorities in protecting the homeland;

And largely ineffective congressional oversight of intelligence and homeland security.

The quality of the political discourse on these topics is discouraging, to say the least. We’d all be a lot better off – and a lot safer – if we spent less time arguing over who gained a political advantage from the latest leak, and more time having a dialogue on how to protect our country.

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Lee Hamilton, vice chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, is president and director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Prior to becoming director of the Woodrow Wilson Center in 1999, Hamilton served for 34 years in Congress representing Indiana's Ninth District. During his tenure, he served as chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs (now the Committee on International Relations), chaired the Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East from the early 1970s until 1993, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran.

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