Peggy Noonan on TSA Airport Abuse
Peggy Noonan has written a brilliant OpinionJournal piece “If Cattle Flew.” Her subtitle sums it up: “Look at the airports. Why would terrorists bother with seaports? “
[tease] (Noonan’s article concludes:)
It is almost five years since 9/11, and since the new security regime began. Why hasn’t it gotten better? Why has it gotten worse? It’s a disgrace, this airport security system, and it’s an embarrassment. I’m sure my Englishman didn’t come away with a greater respect or regard for America.
So we’re all talking about port security this week, and the debate over the Bush administration decision to allow an United Arab Emirates company to manage six ports in the United States. That debate is turning bitter, and I wonder if the backlash against President Bush isn’t partly due to the fact that everyone in America has witnessed or has been a victim of the incompetence of the airport security system. Why would people assume the government knows what it’s doing when it makes decisions about the ports? It doesn’t know what it’s doing at the airports.
This is a flying nation. We fly. And everyone knows airport security is an increasingly sad joke, that TSA itself often appears to have forgotten its mission, if it ever knew it, and taken on a new one–the ritual abuse of passengers.
Now there’s a security problem. Solve that one.
As Noonan points out, this TSA madness is a national disgrace. The TSA system is expensive, and some of the procedures are probably worthless.
The surly attitude of TSA people varies, but you’ll hit it about 85 percent of the time in my experience. That’s outrageous.
Maybe if senior politicians wore a disguise they’d get the same rotten treatment the rest of us, and then DO something about it. Or not.
[via reddit]