RSS Feed MenuCan we stop taking our shoes off now? The Hasan revelations raise the unhappy thought that what we’ve been doing these past 8 years isn’t security. It’s security theater.
We thought there was a deal. The public would tolerate some admittedly dopey-looking procedures (walking through the metal detectors in stockinged feet) in the confidence that the authorities were doing the real work of identifying and surveilling the most dangerous threats to public safety.
Apparently not.
For years, genuine experts have warned against the folly of ethnic profiling – that is, applying extra scrutiny to persons because of their Islamic names or country of origin. They were right too. (A point Richard Perle and I argued in 2004 in the book we co-authored.)
But again – the alternative to ethnic profiling is not declining to react to suspicious behavior by a Muslim person lest we somehow corroborate a stereotype. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Indeed, hardly any Muslims are terrorists. But when authorities begin to receive credible information that one particular Muslim might be dangerous – especially if that person wears the uniform of the United States – it beggars belief that they would hesitate to act.
Yet hesitate they did. Too bad Hasan didn’t try to smuggle a bottle of water aboard an aircraft. Then of course they’d have thrown the book at him.
Obama Just Dithering on Afghanistan « Cynical Synapse // Nov 13, 2009 at 4:05 pm
[...] there don’t have the right equipment, choosing not to decide would be criminal. It would be tantamount to failing to take action with MAJ Hasan’s warning signs Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Obama, Just Make a Decision on [...]
balconesfault // Nov 13, 2009 at 5:40 pm
sinz54, you can argue coherently with balcones
actually, sinz and I have some very good discussions. there are things we can agree on, and we both understand where there are some sharp dividing lines between our ideologies. aside from his occassional lapse into labeling people who disagree with him as people who want to weaken America (rather than acknowledging that they simply have a very different viewpoint of what it is that will strengthen or weaken America going forward into the 21st century) I find him very reasonable.
I’ve actually noticed a lot more opprobrium and invective hurled Sinz’s way from the right than from the left lately. For example, who do you think wrote this:
“sinz hates palin or it bitter because his inflatable girlfriend wont give him any.. got it — you hate women, you hate conservatives, teabags, polls, yada yada yada”
or
“well thank you very much for trying to shove those words into my mouth, sinz54… i didn’t say dulles was a dove and I didn’t say eisenhower was a dove either. that’s your selective spinning at full tilt”
or
“Nixon put the flag on the moon, sinz54. You can bow down with your head toward the west and worship facing Yorba Linda. Of course, you can’t. That would get someone from Boston out to your home to yank off that Kennedy decoder ring you wear with such pride, no?”