In reaction to yesterday's revelation of a thwarted terrorist plot involving explosive liquids that were to be smuggled onboard several transatlantic flights and then set off, the Department of Homeland Security has, for the first time in the nation's history, raised the terror threat level to red, indicating an expectation of "imminent attack". The resulting security increases have crippled the airline industry, grounding flights both here and abroad and forcing passengers to endure long waits, forgo electronics and liquids on flights, and submit to full searches of carry-on baggage. While UK authorities have opined that several conspirators may still be at large, the severity of the US response to the plot begs the question of what, exactly, demands this extreme level of alertness.
What has changed since yesterday? Very little, if you ask me. One wonders why, if authorities have known "for years" of the threat posed by liquid explosives, they did not impose restrictions prior to this very public revelation. It was a threat before now, and today's abrupt institution of a ban on liquids and electronics aboard flights seems calculated to exude decisiveness more than to effectively reduce a threat to America. And if anything is clear from the intolerable delays brought on by new security policies, it is that the country as a whole cannot function, at least not as it normally does, under such restrictions. Something will have to change, and soon.
The expected "imminent attack" inherent in the elevated threat level is also puzzling: does an announcment of a foiled plan really mean that some other nefarious scheme is already in motion, and that it is of the same type? It seems improbable, to say the least. We may feel safer knowing that the government is taking action to "protect" its citizens from terrorism, but today's response also, whether intentionally or not, makes us more afraid, for it indicates that those in power, that those who are informed in such matters, believe that today, more than ever, the "Islamic fascists" want Americans dead.
Article comments
1 - JustOneMan
Yaaaawwwwnnnnnnn.......
"intolerable delays brought on by new security policies" Says who? Another 45 minutes - hour extra to check in and a little inconvenience for those of us who do extensive travel and will now have to check our 3-day bags?
Pretty funny take --- Gee and if 10 planes with 3000 people dropped out of the sky next week would you still deny the fact that there is a war going on?
So the government is doing this to scare us into doing what????
From your perspective what should we do? Not implement tigher security, the borders and all convert to Islam?
2 - zingzing
try 5 hours jom.
the govt knew about this for a long time. they didn't have to let a panic set in.
also, you are full of hyberbole. and shit.
3 - Bob Jones
Just ban all non-essential carry-on luggage, once it is a full blown rule - nobody would try take anything and everything could move on as normal.
4 - JustOneMan
Zing...most of the airports have already dropped the time way down....
Zing have you always been an asshole...you would have been one of the first to complain about this if the airlines implemented these restrictions 6 months ago...
Oh...thats right I forgot did Howie Dean tell you morons in the "Blame America First Club" to stick to the talking points...Gee where were all those elected Dumbocrats in the senate and congress screaming a year ago to ban water, etc....
PS Are you ready for your daily meal...since I am so full of shit Im about to releive myself...and I know how much you love fecal matter...just in time for your lunch
5 - Dave Nalle
You know, I must be peculiar, but the government implementing higher safety standards doesn't scare me. What scares me is when they DON'T try to keep us safe.
Dave
6 - zingzing
jom--all i said is that they needn't have allowed such a panic and disruption and you come up with "blame america?" you are just going after me today, aren't you? no way you can take yourself seriously.
so, did you like the 5 hour waits? mmm?
i don't care about all the restrictions, although security did take away a very nice zippo of mine last year. they never gave it back. but toothpaste? toothpaste!? what the fuck... that's a bit of an overreaction. when i sit down to some stank-mouthed mother fucker and have to sit beside said mother fucker for six hours, you'd better fuckin bet i'll be complaining.
to your PS--i didn't know you went in for all that european stuff. surprises every day. hey editors--does shitting in my mouth, even rhetorically, count as a personal attack. if not, so be it. if so, could you tell this fucking asshole to fuck his ass right off? thanks.
7 - Michael J. West
JOM, are you by any chance Bing/Arch Conservative?
8 - zingzing
if so, his screen name is getting more and more pretentious. bing to arch conservative to just one man... here to save humanity from itself.
but i don't think it's true. unless bing has two separate identities... psyches i mean... bing at least made a point now and again... jom is just an attack dog. and a pussy cat. pussy... cat... meeoww. mew. mew.
9 - Peter J
No matter what anybody says or does we are always in danger of imminent attack. Every minute, every day!
Did it just now occur to the morons at Homeland Insecurity that you could make explosives with liquid?
Now that they can't carry liquids on we're safe? They can shove it up their ass! Can't they? Who's going to look up everyone's ass? I guess that would be something useful for Bush to do.
There's been an increased danger of airline attacks ever since 9/11, and every minute since then we have been under attack. Just because they haven't raised the so-called 'Terror Alert' doesn't mean we're off the hook. As a matter of fact, there was NO terror alert on 9/11 and even if we had one the White House would have ignored it anyway. (O, wait, they did ignore it!)
There are so many ways to fuck everything up you could make a reality show over it.
Do you think every attempt is going to be discussed among 30 people to go out and spread the word? There will be 2 or 3 quiet guys, collecting components for a supersize nuclear device or chemical weapon capable of taking out an entire city, built right there in their living room while watching SpongeBob Squarepants.
Lots of people will know them and if any of them are still alive they will all say what a nice boy he was.
We are being played, Homeland Security will not stop an attack that is planned to succeed because the only thing needed to succeed is stealth. If you dont put it right in Homeboy Securitys' face they are clueless.
Being delayed at the airport or having no carry on luggage may prevent an attack, maybe. But who ever said an attack has to involve an airplane? I'll bet that as we speak that someone, somewhere has already figured a way around the new procedure.
Any one with military training in demolitions, who majored in physics in college, or who has enough hatred, desire, and knowlege can conduct an act of terrorism, one which will kill and maim thousands, or hundreds of thousands!
One person overseeing 20 of these people assembling a device, on an individual basis, co-ordinating each one, not knowing about the other will put our country on her knees. It will take a century to get back up.
We don't need Homeland Security and the president and that fucking stupid terror alert putting on a show for us, we just need them to do what the fuck they're meant to do. Find this shit and stop it when and where they can! What the fuck do we need a color for? What will that actually do aside from add drama? Oh yea, I forgot. Everytime Bush is in the shitter he pulls that crap out of his ass. John Fuckin Wayne.
Bush works for US! and just like any job where an employee is running his fucking mouth to the boss, telling him what a great job he's doing, the boss says "Don't tell me what you're doing, just do it!
Forget the big show, all the drama, ridiculous color levels, and the childlike rhetoric.
We know that 'there's some bad people out there who hate our freedom'. This fool is going to get us all killed!
10 - JP
Actually, there's a provocative argument that says our entire "War on terror" strategy is faulty--read about it in the latest Atlantic Monthly. This militant approach we're pursuing is only causing more people to take up arms against America.