Bryan W. Alaspa 1We can’t save everyone
December 29th 2009 14:36
The big news these days is some nutjob who thought he could set his pants on fire and blow up a plane. The fact that it seems the explosives he had hidden in his underwear might have brought down a plane is frightening. However, it also shows that when someone wants to try and blow up a plane, they are going to try and blow up a plane. Sure, it appears there were lots of warnings about things beforehand, but those warnings were not heeded properly. That should not surprise anyone, as the United States has a long history of ignoring threats and warnings and ending up burned because of it.
The fact is that we cannot save everyone. It is impossible to ensure that no one will ever sneak some kind of explosive onto a plane. As soon as they implement some new security measures, the people who want to blow up planes immediately set to work finding ways to get around it. That is what they do. As soon as they have body scanners, they will find some way to beat that. It is just a fact of life, which is sad to say.
What amazes me is how conservatives want to blame the current administration for this. As if the previous administrations was batting a thousand on assessing and eliminating threats. As if the prior people in office, for eight years, were not the absolute poster-boys for incompetence and stupidity.
Let’s see, wasn’t it the prior administration that had a report on their desk that said it was likely that terrorists might use planes as weapons to attack the United States? What happened then? Well, the administration chose to put it aside, ignore it, and then 9/11 happened. Let us not forget that no explosives were used to hijack those planes, either. Those guys brought those planes down using box cutters.
Didn’t the guy with the stuff in his shoe happen under the prior administration’s watch? Yes, I believe it did. Why were there no cries about how the system failed back then? Where was the outrage and calls for people to resign? Oh, that’s right, W was a Christian so, obviously, God meant for the shoe bomber to be there and that makes it OK.
People are calling for the resignation of the current chief of Homeland Security. To me, that entire department is about as useful as growing a tooth in your ear. Sure, at first it is unique and somewhat amusing, but eventually it just hurts, gets in the way and is, generally speaking, utterly useless. Yes, because the guy who was in charge with the previous administration was SO helpful with his ridiculous color-coded warnings that no one knew. Let us not forget his oh-so-helpful warnings.
“Yes, we have a general threat assessed against the United States. No specific target has been mentioned and we don’t know what they might try, but we think someone might be up to something somewhere. So, we’re raising the threat level to chartreuse.”
Ultimately what stopped this guy were the passengers. That’s right, the people. Isn’t that what conservatives want? They want the people, the “open market” to magically take care of everything, right? So, I would say, then, that their system worked and they should shut up unless they have something better in mind.
But it had better not be more government, of course. Remember, that’s socialism. Or communism. Or some kind of “ism.”
What amazes me is how conservatives want to blame the current administration for this. As if the previous administrations was batting a thousand on assessing and eliminating threats. As if the prior people in office, for eight years, were not the absolute poster-boys for incompetence and stupidity.
Let’s see, wasn’t it the prior administration that had a report on their desk that said it was likely that terrorists might use planes as weapons to attack the United States? What happened then? Well, the administration chose to put it aside, ignore it, and then 9/11 happened. Let us not forget that no explosives were used to hijack those planes, either. Those guys brought those planes down using box cutters.
People are calling for the resignation of the current chief of Homeland Security. To me, that entire department is about as useful as growing a tooth in your ear. Sure, at first it is unique and somewhat amusing, but eventually it just hurts, gets in the way and is, generally speaking, utterly useless. Yes, because the guy who was in charge with the previous administration was SO helpful with his ridiculous color-coded warnings that no one knew. Let us not forget his oh-so-helpful warnings.
“Yes, we have a general threat assessed against the United States. No specific target has been mentioned and we don’t know what they might try, but we think someone might be up to something somewhere. So, we’re raising the threat level to chartreuse.”
Ultimately what stopped this guy were the passengers. That’s right, the people. Isn’t that what conservatives want? They want the people, the “open market” to magically take care of everything, right? So, I would say, then, that their system worked and they should shut up unless they have something better in mind.
But it had better not be more government, of course. Remember, that’s socialism. Or communism. Or some kind of “ism.”
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