N1120A

1) Drugs mean nothing in this equation. Has nothing to do with being a "trusted traveler" to the TSA.

2) The Military has no business being some elite sub-class of society.

gjhgjhgjh

The TSA is the first line to preventing airplanes from being hijacked.

Think of it this way. We give those in the military airplanes w/bombs, ships w/missiles, tanks and guns w/ammo and we completely trust them not to turn on us and forcefully take over the country. But we have issues trusting that they won't hijack an airplane. What sense that make?!?!

cardiomd

It makes a lot of sense.

To "forcefully take over the country" takes a lot of people. To forcefully take over a plane possibly only requires only one person.

This issue here is about allowing an entire class of persons to bypass a security where they would subsequently be given an opportunity to do a huge amount of damage, or introduce bad objects, say, a cache of weapons, that could be used by other persons to do something bad.

The situation to what you compare above is not remotely equivalent. We always limit risk. We don't give every soldier the codes to nuclear weapons; doesn't mean we don't "trust" them. If a single army soldier went crazy he would be stopped in a short amount of time (e.g. Fort Hood incident.)

nachtnebel

Or the soldier in the M1 Abrams a few years ago in Kentucky, if I recall correctly, that put a tank round through his buddy's tank as they were loading up on a transport. Hard to see that one of these folks should be trusted than an 85 year old woman using a walker and a cane.

Boggie Dog

TSA is the last in line preventing airplanes from being hijacked and from GAO reports do a pretty poor job overall.

clrankin

Thanks for the humor.

TSA may be first in line at the coffee shop (because they line jump using their "autoritay"), or first in line at the red light (because they flash their badges at motorists in an illegal attempt to impersonate someone with authority), or first in line at (hopefully, someday) the unemployment office... but they're certainly not first in line in preventing hijackings.

TSA isn't even in that line, my friend... They spend way too much time being preoccupied with things like drugs, who's carrying how much money, where you're going and how long you'll be there, and how to quickly shove an iPad down their pants in a theft ring.

Think of it this way: why should our government bestow any special treatment upon a group of citizens (thus creating an elite sub-class) for arbitrary and capricious reasons? I understand the military doesn't like taking their boots off and it's an inconvenience... join the crowd - who does?

RatherBeOnATrain

Indeed.

In today's news:
Source:
Bryan County News:
Four soldiers arrested in homicides identified
POSTED: December 12, 2011 2:09 p.m.

jtodd

The politicians running/ruining this country are idiots. Besides the following, there's no way in he!! that I would allow a TSA employee to look at my orders, for any reason. Orders have a lot of PII, as well as sometimes classified information.

"December 14, 2011
Are They Ignorant or Just Dressing Windows Again?
Posted by Becky Akers on December 14, 2011 10:17 AM

The Senate “unanimously” passed a bill Monday night that requires the TSA to waste our money on developing “expedited airport security screening for soldiers traveling on orders.”

But Marine Corps Times reports that this legislation won’t accomplish much. “A Marine senior noncommissioned officer, who asked not to be identified by name because he was not authorized to speak to the press, said…he almost never travels while in uniform. Most service members, unless they are traveling with their unit, don’t travel in uniform, the Marine said, unless they are a young person making their first permanent change-of-station moves. ‘If I am going on TAD for pre-deployment training or another type of place, I do not wear a uniform to the airport because it is against Marine Corps orders,’ he said.”

Yet Congressional bozos squandered time and taxes on this nonsense despite the screams of the TSA’s gate-raped victims echoing coast-to-coast."

So the politicians who voted for this either didn't do any research to investigate whether this is even viable, in which case they fail at their job, or, they knew the problems that would come from this, and didn't care, in which case they fail at their job.