In response to the Al Qaida terrorist attack on Christmas day, the Obama administration has responded forcefully, punishing and restricting the freedom of… innocent airline passengers.
According to a new TSA security directive distributed to airlines on Saturday, airlines are to “disable aircraft-integrated passenger communications systems and services (phone, internet access services, live television programming, global positioning systems) prior to boarding and during all phases of flight.” Also: all passenger access to carry-on luggage, getting up from seats and having anything on laps is banned one hour before all landings.
But lest you think Obama cares nothing about freedom and rights, rest assured that Abdulmutallab will not be sent to Guantanamo Bay and treated as a prisoner of war. We wouldn’t want to interrogate him to find out who armed and trained him (however incompetently), so that future attacks might be thwarted. No, the security of Americans is not as important as Abdulmutallab’s constitutional rights. The enemy combatant has been given lawyers.
Obama continues the Bush approach but more so. The neoconservatives were so fearful of world opinion that they failed to prosecute the war well. Instead they created the Department of Homeland Security, happy to keep the American people in a constant state of fear rather than actually fight a serious war to defeat the enemy.
As incompetent and misguided as Bush was in defending America against a totalitarian enemy that would destroy us, Obama is worse. Being an anti-American collectivist, he bows and apologizes to dictators around the world and treats Americans as serfs who must keep their hands on their knees to show they are not up to anything bad.
The difference is between one president fearful of taking the right actions to defeat the enemy and another president who does not even know there is a war or won’t admit it.
As far as air travel is concerned I do as little as humanly possible. It is already the most unc0mfortable way to travel before the new restrictions so I imagine now it will only get worse.
” We wouldn’t want to interrogate him to find out who armed and trained him”
I don’t think we are supposed to interrogate prisoners of war anyway.
My favorite comment on the new restrictions:
“How long before we are flying naked, sedated, wrapped in shrinkwrap and stacked like cordwood?”
I chuckle, but then I think, “Don’t give them any ideas.”
I just heard on the radio that the new restrictions have been rescinded because they caught so much ridicule and negative response.
Naked flying, with a few exceptions, brings bad mental images.
It makes sense that Obama wishes to extend airtravel restrictions and regulations. He’s unwilling to militarily engage Islamofacist threats overseas so the only alternative is to hunker down at home. He’s ruled out offense which leaves him exclusively with defense.