This recent attempt at terror in the skies apparently was only an operational failure, not a tactical failure. The 24 hour news networks have latched onto this story, forgetting for the most part about swine flu, Tiger Woods, and the recent health care scam bill, displaying scary headlines, and using ominous language. The TSA, after spending $40 billion dollars or more to protect us against such threats, failed to have a system in place to prevent the wannabe martyr on board, and instead has issued new inane guidelines that are all about theater and nothing to do with safety.

1) No standing up during the last hour of a flight. Why? Because the attempted bomber was sitting down when he attempted to trigger the bomb.

2) Nothing in your lap the last hour of a flight. Why? Because the attempted bomber had something sewn into his crotch

3) International flights should consider no longer allowing electronics during the flight. Why? Because the attempted bomber used a non-electronic device.

This is in addition to the, possibly more inane, rule about scanning your shoes. Eight years ago, Richard Reid brought explosives aboard a plane via the soles of his shoes. So now we all have to take our shoes off so they can go through an x-ray that can’t detect explosive residue. We’re limited to a 1 gallon bag containing as many 3 oz bottles of liquid that can fit, even though no such chemical tests are ever run.

None of this makes us safer. We have to accept that in a free society there’s going to be a body count. We will have to accept the fact that there will be terrorists attacks against the United States where we might lose a couple hundred to a couple thousand people at a time. These attacks will kill less people than the flu, car accidents, alcohol, and murders against our own citizens by ourselves. We will have to accept that there is a 1 in 10 million chance of being killed aboard an airplane due to terrorist attacks.

Once we finally accept this as a fact of life in the modern, free world, we will have taken away the *real* terrorist weapon, which is not a bomb, but instead, simply fear. I’m personally already there, and I hope that more people can join me.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.