I’m sure you’ve all heard by now about the terror plot thwarted by British officials, but here’s a review:
Apparently, terrorists were planning to blow up planes traveling from the UK to the US (to cities such as New York, DC, Los Angeles, etc.) using liquid explosives. British officials discovered the plan late last night and immediately raised their terror alert level to “critical,” which means that a terror strike is imminent. The US responded in kind, raising our terror alert level to “red” in relation to flights coming from the UK, and “orange” in relation to all other US flights. This has caused hundreds of delays and cancelled flights in both countries and has led to changes in security measures in airports.
Passengers are no longer allowed to bring liquids onto the plane in their carry-on luggage. This means no lotions, toothpaste, beverages, liquid make-up, and the like. There’s where I get upset. Thanks a lot, Mr. Terrorist…even though we’ve foiled your evil scheme to kill thousands of people, I still can’t bring my toiletries on the plane with me. So now, if the airline loses my luggage, I end up spending hundreds of dollars replacing face wash, make-up, toothpaste, contact solution, and hairspray.
An interesting tidbit I heard on the radio today: you can bring baby formula and/or breast milk on the plane so long as you are actually traveling with the baby and are willing to taste the formula or milk. Say what??? I’m really hoping they mean that the baby has to taste the formula or milk because there is not a flight in this world so important that I would taste my own breast milk. Yick!
On a more serious note, there is speculation that the terrorists’ goals have changed slightly. On 9/11 the terrorists’ goal was to use planes as guided missiles in order to destroy specific targets. Now, it appears, they want to merely maximize casualties. Rather than taking over the plane and using it as a missile, they simply blow it out of the sky, killing all those on board – no matter who they are.
This calls into question security at stadiums, arenas, racetracks, amusement parks, shopping malls and other places where large numbers of people gather. Would these not be easy targets for someone merely wanting to kill a lot of innocent people? Although security has been increased at Neyland Stadium since 9/11, how safe am I going to feel going to football games this fall? The Bristol race is coming up in a couple of weeks – are they going to greatly increase security measures given this possibility?
This is the horrifying thing about terrorists – they could be anywhere, look like anyone, and be willing to do anything. There could be one living down the road from me and I would never know. How do we fight an enemy that lives in the shadows and is willing to kill anyone and everyone in the hopes of some eternal reward? I am able to protect myself against home invaders, rapists, or muggers (a 9mm in my purse is a nice little safety precaution…). But how do I protect myself against someone who will sneak up beside me in an airplane and blow us all up?
August 11, 2006 at 8:15 pm
Jama,
Why should I believe anything the government says??
Gary
Beats me…
-J
August 14, 2006 at 2:05 pm
maybe we can agree on this; you cannot protect yourself on a plane by our government invading and occupying Iraq. It has not made you safer.
It’s possible that we could agree on that…but there’s really no way to know for sure since we don’t know what would have happened had we not invaded Iraq. There’s not actually been a terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11, but should we attribute that to increased security measures or to toppling Hussein’s regime? I would say it’s most likely the increased security measures, but no one will ever know for certain.
I’m not comfortable with the war…I think that pre-emptive war is generally a really bad idea for philosophical reasons. Not to mention the fact that I also think it’s generally a really bad idea to be involved in foreign affairs.
-J
August 15, 2006 at 9:03 am
Fair enough. While it is true that we don’t know what would have happened if we had not invaded Iraq, I believe such a supposition lends credence to the fallacy that Iraq was somehow involved in the 9-11 attacks. The unfortunate thing is that the American people have been given a myriad of reasons of why we invaded Iraq. It started with WMD’s, then moved to removing a brutal dictator, and then on to establishing a foothold for democracy in the region. I’m not sure what the new rationale is but it seems we are bogged down in Iraq while the real threat of Iran and their open support of Islamic terror groups continues to grow.
I can’t disagree with you there…
-J
August 17, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Jama and Chris,
The sad fact of the matter is that both parties have been hijacked with William Kristol and his neo cons.
It looks like it’s perpetual war from here to eternity.
Gary