Jim,
re: Are you a pilot? The PIC is in charge. I doubt you would find too many who were willing to fly a commercial airliner on tuesday or even wednsday before a security gut check...
Shutting down the system for a few days to take a look see was a very good idea.
It's very easy to get carried away. Think, this isn't an invasion by tens of thousands of terrorists. This is an incredibly successful (unlucky) action by a very small group of terrorists. The country was as safe Monday afternoon as it was Monday morning, probably safer.
If we want to make it 100% safe, we can fly one plane out of each airport, once a day. Clean the airport, do extensive background checks on each passenger, check the route for stinger missles, secure the landing area, on and on.
My point is that life is risk, it's a matter of balance. Intellectual balance and perspective is very hard to achieve right now, but it's very important. And now it's a matter of politics. As a country we can let one lousy f---ing group of assholes run our country, or we can summon the courage to deal with reality instead of fear. As this is the first hijacking in ten years of hundreds of thousands of flights, the odds are probably OK.
If we decide to close down our society, our way of life, for every jerk on a mission, what does that say to our other enemies? Are we becoming more or less of a appealing target?
From the perpetrators perspective, who won the aftermath of this event?
John |
