It is a war security officials know they cannot afford to lose - and that they know they will be fighting for the foreseeable future.
When I was flying back from the holidays, it occurred to me that there would probably never again be a time when we could simply get on a plane without worrying about it, having to be searched, etc. Not in my lifetime, certainly.
Islam declared war on civilization at the moment of its birth, and has been waging that war steadily ever since then. We in the West have enjoyed a brief respite from it because of the collapse and impotence of most Muslim states in the 20th century.
But Islam has now gone back to its traditional forms of extending itself, outside of the structure of states, via banditry, piracy, and rabble-rousing by fanatical religious leaders. Unfortunately, modern chemical/explosive weaponry and Muslim willingness to attack non-combatant civilian targets have made them a threat that is probably going to turn into a battle to the death over the next hundred years. I think it's going to make WW II look positively civilized.
While I will be the first to highlight the bloodthirsty savagery of today's Islamo-fascist terrorists, the above is not a true statement. A better statement would be Islam declared war on Christianity at the moment of its birth.
For nearly a millenium after its birth, Islam was at the forefront of human civilization, while Christendom was struggling in the so-called dark ages.
Fundamentalist Islamic terror has its roots in 18 century Arabia, where, in a remote desert corner, a tribal leader called Sheikh Abdul Wahab founded (what was then considered) an eponymous heretical sect which was to change the lives of first the Arabians and then the rest of Islam.