Missing the Point
I don’t normally read more than the first ten replies on a blog, but in the last few weeks I’ve read every comment for several articles related to the enhanced patdowns the TSA is performing for those who opt out of the full body back scatter machines.
The latest of these was at www.ourlittlechatterboxes.com
I’m fascinated by people’s responses. Most folks agree that these procedures are too invasive with a few dissenters who basically say that it’s a small price to pay for “security”.
As so many others have said far better than me, this all amounts to security theater. People want to feel safe, but these things don’t actually make anyone safer. Sure, maybe these procedures will prevent someone from bringing contraband onto a plane – but only if they are storing it outside their body. Anyone will to go through the trouble to bring a plane down just might be will to store something internally.
But why go through the trouble of bringing a plane down? If terrorists are looking for soft targets, or looking to cripple air travel, it would be much, much easier for them to just load up on explosives and detonate themselves in line – before they ever get through security!
Think about it, all those people, waiting in line, bunched up. You blow something up there and not only could you cause a lot of casualties, but you’d shut the entire airport down. No flight lessons needed. And if this was done as a coordinated attack across the country, not only would there be a mandate to once again ground all planes, but even after everything was declared safe, the physical damage to the nation’s infrastructure would take weeks or months to repair, and the damage to the flying public’s psyche would take even longer to heal.
On the other hand, an attack like that might actual make the flying public recognize that there is a difference between security theater and actually being safe and we’d begin to implement something akin to what Israel has.