A modest proposal--Rethinking 9/11

1. The US has been at threat condition orange (or is it taz) since it was created.

2. In time between 9/11 and now exponentially more Americans have died of heart diseases, cancer, car accidents, and various other maladies.

3. Also, the fundamental nature of terrorism is that it is unpreventable. Israel has the tightest security on the planet and they still have problems with terrorism.

4. The TSA and DHS have created policies and procedures that only weaken airline security, and provide a justification for terrorism.

Thus, the following is resolved: We, as a people united in spirit across the world, resolve to, STOP USING 9/11/2001 AS A JUSTIFICATION FOR ANYTHING.

Yup, that's all I got.

I'll sign on to that.

For awhile it was threat level yellow then they moved it to threat level orange. I think that TSA watches too many movies instead of talking to the folks who do threat assesments for a living (i.e. CIA, NSA, FBI, etc). DHS does a poor job of intel (as talked about obliquely by posters who deal with the alphabet soup agencies and DHS on a frequent basis).

Remember 9/11, and be vigilent insted of paranoid.

While I agree we should not use 9/11 to justify things or as an excuse. We should also not totally forget it either.

Too many people have forgotten.

I think that on 9/11/2011 we should have a big national party to memorialize 10 years of collectively sh*itting our pants.

Denial is a warm blanket you can pull over your head. Never forget. Never forgive.

Frank Herbert wrote 'Fear is the mind killer.' Evidence abounds.

The OP does not advocate "forgetting" rather stop using it as an excuse, stop invoking "9/11" to fear-monger.

*****

George Santayana
'Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.'
Life of Reason, Reason in Common Sense, Scribner's, 1905, page 284"

And most generals spend their time fighting the last war.

Works for me ^

Why, next, you'll be advocating the employment of common sense asa determinate factor in governmental decision making.

I've an elderly (older than I, so old I served in "Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard") neighbor who travels by air at most once a year. She donates freely to political candidates, mostly Democrats, and writes our Congressman (D) regularly. She believes, firmly, sincerely and with unalterable conviction, that only the thin blue line of the TSA protects her from mad jihadist bombers targeting flights from ACT to IAH or DFW (Well, they don't go any where else from here!).

She's joined or at least aided by countless others whose opinions and perceptions motivate the votes of Congresscritters and successive Executive Branches. There's no real practical accounting involved in the existence and much of the process of the TSA, and no real "cost/benefit" analysis in the continuance of most of its efforts. Driven by public opinion or their perception thereof, legislators and presidential advisers make most of the decisions involving "Travel Security". Like the giant fence being erected - and the phallic connotation should not be ignored - along the Border, "Symbolism" as opposed to "Substance", we have descended into a sociopolitical morass in which "Bread and Circuses" to appeal to the majority have largely replaced common sense and pragmatic evaluation as ingredients in the recipe for governance.

You are right as to the first sentence. The problem is, 9/11 has become the poster child for national overreaction.

With regard to your second sentence, what is wrong with it is that you are collectively trying to link the necessity of TSA with ensuring that another 9/11 doesn't happen. And as we all know, 9/11 didn't happen because of lax gate security.

I agree with the first sentence. I couldn't disagree more with the second sentence. TSA has been worse than a waste of time - it has squandered valuable national resources in exchange for no real improvement in aviation security. We're paying millions more for nothing. Other than guaranteed federal employment for 30,000 people.

halls120 summed it up and i agree 100%. if, instead of flying planes into a buliding, terrorists had say blown up a football stadium full of people it would be the football stadiums that would be on lockdown. blowing up a train under the hudson? the subway platforms would be crippled with smoke and mirror security instead of the airports. we demand answers where there are none. we demand action even when those actions are useless and counterproductive. the tsa is a complete waste of time and effort. it is nothing personal to the people who work for them. it is just a fact...