The latest "screw-up" that let a man with explosives get on a plan on Christmas day is only part of a larger laxness and irresponsibility when it comes to national security. This administration pays lip service to national security and gives out with a lot of rhetorical notions that makes it notional security instead of national security.
The Muslim major who was arrested for the murders of American soldiers at Fort Hood had left so many clues to his hatred of this country that all you had to do was count the dots, without even connecting them, to see where he was coming from. But for a fellow officer to alert higher authorities to the danger would have meant risking damage to his own career moreso than to that of Major Nidal Hasan.
That is because we have become so obsessed with political correctness that both common sense and self-preservation have to take a back seat. We don't dare "profile" anybody going through security checks because that's not politically correct. Far better to be blown to smithereens than to be politically incorrect.
Probably the country with the strongest security checks for airline passengers— and the strongest reason for such checks— is Israel. Israel profiles. I have been to Israel more than once and it is clear that they profile.
Fortunately, my wife and I obviously don't fit their profile, whatever that may be. Others who have been to Israel are amazed when I tell them that we have gone through Israeli security four times and they have never opened our luggage.
That is all the more surprising, since we take a lot of luggage. We have stopped in Israel while on trips completely around the world, including countries both above and below the equator, so we had to have clothing for hot weather and cold weather, since the seasons are the opposite in the northern and southern hemispheres. Moreover, I carry a lot of photographic equipment in a large, separate piece of luggage.
In short, our luggage could carry enough explosives to blow up any building in the country.
But, whatever their security system and whatever their profile, they didn't seem to want to waste any time on us.
The last time we flew into Israel was from Cairo, where the Israeli security officials at the Cairo airport detained the lady in line in front of us for 45 minutes, opened her luggage, spread the contents across the counter, and asked her all sorts of questions. When they had finally finished with her and my wife and I stepped up to the counter, the official in charge waved us on impatiently, saying, "Hurry up, you'll miss the plane."
This was no special treatment for us. They had no idea who we were. We were just not the kind of people they spent time on, for whatever reason.
Recently, an Israeli security official was interviewed on Fox News Channel by Mike Huckabee. The official said that he has testified before Congress and offered to help with suggestions on how the American airport security system could be improved— and he clearly thought it needed a lot of improvement.
Apparently the only response he got from American security officials was a polite letter. "They didn't tell me to go to Hell," he said. "They were polite."
There is no stronger indication of danger than officials who don't want to hear what anybody else has to say, even when those who offer to help have a system that works better than ours.
The fundamental issue goes beyond the Fort Hood massacre or the Christmas bomber. These are just symptoms of a larger set of attitudes and expediences reflecting the same outlook.
Putting terrorists on trial in American criminal courts, under rules designed for American citizens, tells you all you need to know about whether the Obama administration is serious about security or is still playing the political correctness game.
Terrorists are not covered by the Geneva convention for the simple reason that they do not abide by the Geneva convention. They are enemy combatants and you do not turn enemy combatants loose to go back to killing Americans while the war is still on— not if you are being serious, as distinguished from being political or ideological.
To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His Web site is www.tsowell.com.
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If nothing else, you have to give credit to the liberals for their consistency, at least on this issue. The same ones who blasted the theory of trickle down economics are quick to tell us that trickle down "notional security" will have no negative effect on our ability to protect ourselves from those who mean to destroy us. Let's hope the realilty of the danger we are inviting by Obama's notions doesn't result in more and greater tragedy before we have a chance to rid ourselves of his influence.
Comment: #1
Posted by: Patrick Chase
Tue Jan 12, 2010 8:37 AM
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Dear Thomas Sowell, Excellent article! I just received the following from a few Taxpayers that says it all about our security and our future. INCIDENTALLY, TAXPAYERS FEEL THAT WE HAVE NEITHER! As for Harry Reid and the rest of the 'blood-sucking ticks'' - they need to resign or it's time to 'give them a choice (MORE THAN THEY'VE GIVEN TAXPAYERS), SELL THEM A ONE-WAY TICKET TO GITMO, TAKE ALL THEIR ASSETS TO PAY OFF THE TRILLIONS THEY'VE BORROWED (WITHOUT TAXPAYERS CONSENT), padlock, IMMEDIATELY, all doors to all offices for what they've done to America and send them to the foreign countries they've sold America to!
I thought you readers might like to read.
===============================================================================================
If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference,?would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?
George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?
If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia , would you have approved? ?
If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent "Austrian language," would you have brushed it off as a ?minor slip?
If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income taxes, would you ?have approved?
If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the e 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?
If George W. Bush had miss-spelled the word "advice" would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoe as proof of what a dunce he is?
If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he's a Yypocrite?
If George W. Bush's administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtownManhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9-11?
If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?
If George W. Bush had created the position of 32 Czars who report directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate on much of what is happening in America , would you have approved.
If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?
If George W Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved?
If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?
So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything?
Don't worry.. He's done all this in a few months, so you'll have three years, plus years, to come up with an answer.?
Comment: #2
Posted by: Shirley deLong
Sun Jan 17, 2010 8:39 AM
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Mr. Sowell:
I look forward to your editorials in the Omaha World Herald. I would not be writing this comment were it not for the fact we are literally always "on the same sheet of music." Your op-ed piece on "Notional Security" could not have been more dead-on target. As both a retired member of the US military and a retired law enforcement officer, I have had over thirty years to see the subtle, but all-too rapid decline in the level of competence that rules from the "Power Towers" in Washington and even in our own cities. Everyone is afraid to "step on someone's toes." No one has a sense of humor anymore, or worse, is not allowed to even have one. I have said for years that Political Correctness has the potential of being more deadly to our way of life and our national security than all the guns, illegal or legal, on the streets of our country combined. I saw firsthand political correctness in the US military and it led to my retirement after 33 years of service in three different branches. I saw political correctness at work in the law enforcement community, from the local to the federal level, and it also led to my retirement after thirty years of service. I saw the handwriting on the wall years ago and in 2002, I said it's time to leave this mess in the hands of others...I paid my dues and I did my time. I did not want to be around to see what was coming next.
But I did see it on the news when I watched the live reports streaming in from Ft. Hood. Within seconds I said to myself this was not the work of a pissed-off corporal who got low performance marks. It bore all the characteristics of what I feared long ago was bound to happen sooner rather than later. In my civilian career, we liked to say that guns don't kill people, people kill people. We say the same thing about drunk drivers and cars, why not guns. But concerning the tragedy of Ft. Hood, I say with the assurance that I'm as right as I am that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow that Political Correctness killed thirteen good soldiers and wounded 43 others; Major Nidal Hasan only pulled the trigger.
Thank you for pointing this out so eloquently in your article. If only Washington would wake up an listen.
Comment: #3
Posted by: Donald Bowerman
Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:46 PM
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