The article makes sense and offers a practical approach to analyzing risk - however, the so-called 'war on terror' and the government's 'efforts' post-9/11 have less to do with approaching the terrorism issue practically, and everything to do with stirring emotion, fear and furthering a political agenda that many Americans would find repulsive absent of the 9/11 event.

Why else would such diverse issues unrelated to security as environmental management and energy policy have agendas pushed through which were somehow 'tied' to a security concept?

As long as the 'war on terror' remains an emotional and political issue, one of control, we will never see a practical approach to security in our country

Regarding the containers? if someone wanted to detonate a nuclear device in one of them, there would be no need or chance to do an inspection...a device can be detonated while the container is still onboard ship entering the harbor and do just as much damage. We will never be perfectly safe...and part of designing a proper, reasonable security policy is accepting that fact and applying proper risk analysis to security policy.