We all know why we are supposedly being put through this systematic indignity. Airplanes were the weapons of choice on 9/11. And later developments have shown that terrorists have not given up on the idea of making use of commercial flights in their war on us, although it has also become clear that they have a wide arsenal of weapons at their disposal. For nearly ten years we have been told over and over again that “if we do X, Y, or Z the terrorists will win.” But when I am at any American airport, and I see all the signs and posters reminding me that the magnificent men and women of the TSA and Department of Homeland Security are on the job, and also reminding me that even after I and my possessions have been through the scanners they’ve still got the right to put me through whatever harassment they might be in the mood for, I am enraged at the thought that, of all things, 9/11 has brought us to this insane, illiberal, terribly un-American state of affairs. There are, indeed, times when I can’t help feeling that the very existence of this all too often incompetent and belligerent TSA and Department of Homeland Security apparatus means that the terrorists have won.They have, but in going about things so stupidly, we have let them.
Update: A HuffPo contributor knows who's to blame for the airport "peel and feel" lunacy: not the jihadis, but our own overblown "fear." (Everyone sing: "Imagine there's no jihad/It's easy if you try..")
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