“A systemic failure has occurred, and I consider that totally unacceptable,” an angry and unusually blunt Obama told reporters near his vacation retreat in Hawaii.
A few points ⇒
I haven’t noticed any change in any security whatsoever in any of the 3 airports in which I’ve been in the last three days. I am not, nor has anyone that I’ve talked to been concerned with getting killed by a terrorist. The perp in the case was “subdued by passengers and crew” on the plane.
Flying is miserable. It has been for years by now. The entire process from finding a ride to the airport to getting picked up and certainly everything in between seems as if scientifically designed to exert as much stress on as large a segment of the population as possible. Atlanta’s airport sees almost a million flights a year. Belligerence is high.
The “threat level” was already at orange, and probably has been for several months. It was not raised after the attempted attack. This got me to thinking.
Has the Bush/Cheney threat level mechanism actually desensitized us to the possibility of a terrorist threat so thoroughly by this point that even when there is an attack nobody really cares? And if the ultimate goal of the terrorist is to make us afraid, and we’re not really that afraid, have we now won the war on terror? None of the security measures in place stopped this asshole, a fellow passenger did. I’m surprised they didn’t beat him to a pulp, for if someone were attempting to blow me up on a plane on Christmas day, that’s quite likely what I’d be inclined to do. And how much further past the point of diminishing returns are we going to push this quest for airline security? Wouldn’t we be safer giving all passengers a set of brass knuckles before they board the plane?