Flying High

Slate ^ | December 28, 2009 | Christopher Hitchens

[beaversmom]

Why are we so bad at detecting the guilty and so good at collective punishment of the innocent?

It's getting to the point where the twin news stories more or less write themselves. No sooner is the fanatical and homicidal Muslim arrested than it turns out that he (it won't be long until it is also she) has been known to the authorities for a long time. But somehow the watch list, the tipoff, the many worried reports from colleagues and relatives, the placing of the name on a "central repository of information" don't prevent the suspect from boarding a plane, changing planes, or bringing whatever he cares to bring onto a plane. This is now a tradition that stretches back to several of the murderers who boarded civilian aircraft on Sept. 11, 2001, having called attention to themselves by either a) being on watch lists already or b) weird behavior at heartland American flight schools. They didn't even bother to change their names.

So that's now more or less the routine for the guilty. (I am not making any presumption of innocence concerning Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.) But flick your eye across the page, or down it, and you will instantly see a different imperative for the innocent. "New Restrictions Quickly Added for Travelers," reads the inevitable headline just below the report on the notoriety of Abdulmutallab, whose own father had been sufficiently alarmed to report his son to the U.S. Embassy in Abuja, Nigeria, some time ago. (By the way, I make a safe prediction: Nobody in that embassy or anywhere else in our national security system will lose his or her job as a consequence of this most recent disgrace.)

In my boyhood, there were signs on English buses that declared, in bold letters, "No Spitting." At a...

[Red6]

We have all the information and tools needed to fix most of these security issues. We simply have no balls.

When people and administrations fail like this, the answers often become, “We'll spend more tax money and buy this new magic pill!” Our government will spin, create more paperwork, maybe even new departments and administrations, buy lots of crap, but in the end, if you wage war, you still have to have the heart to stick a knife into someone. If you ain't got that, you ain't fighting, just posturing and impressing people with pretty toys you don't have the balls to use the way you need too.

Osama once called us a “Paper tiger,” was he wrong?

[Red6]

I’m sure Obama’s speech will be great!

That’ll make the masses feel good again.

[elpinta]

“I’m sure Obama’s speech will be great!”
Likely not.

“That’ll make the masses feel good again.”
Most likely.

Just sayin’

[rarestia]

We are a paper tiger, but behind the paper, there’s still a tiger. The problem with America is that we’ve completely handed over the business of governance TO the Feds! What the Hell happened to Of, By, and For the People?

We’ve failed at the “Of” part by enacting the 17th Amendment, stripping States of the Right to appoint Senators. We’ve failed at the “By” part through the acceptance of widespread election fraud and the dumbing down of the people by the media. And don’t even get me started on the “For” part of this. This country hasn’t been FOR the People since 1880.

If we don’t stand up and rise against the very government that is using the idiocy of the few against the many, then we’ve certainly lost our freedoms and the RIGHT to those freedoms as well.

I would fight and die for my freedom and that of my family, my friends, and my fellow countrymen. The problem is that very few others would say the same.

[Frantzie]

I used to like Hitchens a bit even though he was a former leftist lager lout. He is now sort of slightly left libertarian lager lout. He did hate the clinton’s so that is a postive.

He did vote for Obama as far as I know so maybe I should just tell him what lager louts usually say “pi*s off!”

[Frantzie]

The masses (retards) are excited about the college bowl games and NFL playoffs. TV controls the sheep.

[dumpthelibs]

On the next leg of our Christmas trip and amazing how many people I met this past week that are totally clueless regarding ACORN, Kevin Jennings and the whole healthcare debacle, let alone the BS with the Muzzies. If the people I saw over the holidays (not all my in-laws) are representative of the rest of the US, we are absolutely screwed. They know nothing and are willing to let someone else think for them. I think we have already crossed the chasm to socialism and now the masses will look for the government to do everything for them. I am with you on fighting to defend what few freedoms we still have but I fear it will be a lopsided fight given the toadies that are dependent on the government.

[Red6]

Why “should” anyone in the intelligence, DoJ, DoD, or DHS loose their jobs?

They are only giving the masses what they want! Really. Look at all the complaining about people having to take their shoes off, the law suits because of profiling, the criticism in the media......... You know, AFTER the fact the masses scream bloody murder, but what would have happened had anyone arrested the ft Hood terrorist just 15 minutes before he perpetrated his attack? What is happening to the GITMO inmates right now. Why can't we kick out illegals, and why is our boarder open????????????????

You can't blame the intel, law enforcement, and defense for following the guidelines and policies set in place by elected people. Like New Orleans that had a melt down during-after Katrina but essentially wants to live with the rats, electing someone like Nagin and demanding their police look the other way etc....... You can't have it both ways. We want this mess because it might hurt a Latinos feelings if we close the border down. It might upset someone if we do profile........... It sounds really bad if we say that the threat is Sunni Muslims (I said it, now I'm a bad guy). You can't tell people how, when, what, where to do and then blame them for a failure of your own making/design.

We're simply getting what we deserve in that sense.

[rarestia]

Bear in mind, Dumper, that a large majority of the American populace were against the Civil War. The Brother-on-Brother aspect of it bore a big hole in the hearts and minds of the people.

With the media looming so large in context, a second Civil War would be as much a ground combat operation as a media intervention. If people like you and I are on the front lines in an assault on DC, it’s likely that the media would portray us as hillbillies, rednecks, white trash, tea-baggers, and/or terrorists. I’d be interested to see if the real Muzzy terrorists wouldn’t do the job for us, and we could move in to clean up and institute order for Americans instead of the political elite.

The time is nigh.

[A Strict Constructionist]

I assume this is a rhetorical question that he hasn’t the guts to answer truthfully.

I’ll answer it for him. We have a PC bunch of wimps that couldn’t find their way out of a wet paper bag if it was falling apart running things. They always feel that a Police State is more fun for them than a free life with a little danger for the rest of us.

[GingisK]

We simply have no balls.

There is another reason I have observed. The civil government, and society in general, is lead by stupid people. They get into those leadership positions through corrupt practices, who they know, and by taking credit from those who actually do the work.

[beaversmom]

he masses (retards) are excited about the college bowl games and NFL playoffs. TV controls the sheep.

Exactly--I read articles like this and post them to my FB page. Other people are posting about the Broncos losing. Who gives a flying flip!

[beaversmom]

I’m sure Obama’s speech will be great!

Yep. It will pacify the idiots.

[ricks_place]

I’m sure Obama’s speech will be great! Took Four or Five days to fashion a political strategy and write the, no doubt unprecedented, speech. Odds are Obama blames Bush but won't say whether any security related Bush Policies were altered because that would imply culpability on Obama's part.

[Red6]

Think of it this way:

F22 canceled further procurement
Zumwald canceled
FCS canceled
Missile defense cuts
Patriot Act weakened
GITMO closing
CIA no long interrogating terrorists
Iraq draw-down
Afghanistan unsure, delayed and short of requested assets by theater commander
No statement after Iranian missile launches
No statement after N. Korean missile launches
Former intel and DoD officials told they might be investigated and held accountable for “torturing” where and when Holder thinks this happened.

Those are just a few things I alone can think of without doing any research. This administration is a national security nightmare. Obama has done more to weaken the US and the Western industrial powers in 1 year than Carter did in 4. This guy is a walking disaster. He looks good, has nice suits, gives nice speeches, has great poise, and if you didn't know, he's “historic” (i.e. special). in reality this nation elected a midget whose resume is thinner than my own for that job, and that's no kidding (And I would consider myself unqualified). Because he's an elected official he does not have the same security requirements as those that now work for him. In fact, if he had gone through a compartmental T/S with polygraph (NSA/CIA/FBI) he would have failed because of his drug use and affiliation with radical groups advocating the violent over throw of the government. He doesn't qualify to be a mail clerk in the FBI. One could argue that a “Commander of Chiefs” (As he called it on the campaign trail) should at least meet the minimum back ground qualifications as those he will lead within the intel, justice, and defense arena. That aside, his resume is essentially that he was a community organizer, and that's no cliche, it's the truth. He has zero business, foreign affairs, military/intel/national security, executive, experience and all he had to ride on was the Clinton crew he brought in with him and his own arrogance.

People like this typically fall back to what they feel comfortable with. He tipped his hand with the beer summit. But how will he handle Iran? He feels comfortable talking about health care, but he can't bring himself to use the “T-word” regards ft Hood. In the macro, people like this usually shrink back into a corner where they feel comfortable and they at best let others do the dirty work for them, i.e. Gates. At worst they let their dysfunctional ideology guide their decision making and cause a major disaster by ignoring all utilitarian thinking when it comes to issues like GITMO. At least he learned what his own title is since being elected, “Commander in Chief.”

[Tolik]

Christopher Hitchens:

... Why do we fail to detect or defeat the guilty, and why do we do so well at collective punishment of the innocent? The answer to the first question is: Because we can't—or won't. The answer to the second question is: Because we can. The fault here is not just with our endlessly incompetent security services, who give the benefit of the doubt to people who should have been arrested long ago or at least had their visas and travel rights revoked. It is also with a public opinion that sheepishly bleats to be made to "feel safe." The demand to satisfy that sad illusion can be met with relative ease if you pay enough people to stand around and stare significantly at the citizens' toothpaste. My impression as a frequent traveler is that intelligent Americans fail to protest at this inanity in case it is they who attract attention and end up on a no-fly list instead. Perfect.

... What nobody in authority thinks us grown-up enough to be told is this: We had better get used to being the civilians who are under a relentless and planned assault from the pledged supporters of a wicked theocratic ideology. These people will kill themselves to attack hotels, weddings, buses, subways, cinemas, and trains. They consider Jews, Christians, Hindus, women, homosexuals, and dissident Muslims (to give only the main instances) to be divinely mandated slaughter victims. Our civil aviation is only the most psychologically frightening symbol of a plethora of potential targets. The future murderers will generally not be from refugee camps or slums (though they are being indoctrinated every day in our prisons); they will frequently be from educated backgrounds, and they will often not be from overseas at all. They are already in our suburbs and even in our military. We can expect to take casualties. The battle will go on for the rest of our lives. Those who plan our destruction know what they want, and they are prepared to kill and die for it. Those who don't get the point prefer to whine about "endless war," accidentally speaking the truth about something of which the attempted Christmas bombing over Michigan was only a foretaste. While we fumble with bureaucracy and euphemism, they are flying high.

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[esquirette]

We should all be armed at all times.

[Rummyfan]

Those who don't get the point prefer to whine about "endless war,"

It's been going on for well-nigh fourteen-hundred years.... it will go on a while longer.

As for feeling safe, a couple hundred million dead muzzies would be a good start.

[GOPJ]

My impression as a frequent traveler is that intelligent Americans fail to protest at this inanity in case it is they who attract attention and end up on a no-fly list instead. Perfect.

... What nobody in authority thinks us grown-up enough to be told is this: We had better get used to being the civilians who are under a relentless and planned assault from the pledged supporters of a wicked theocratic ideology.

It's time to get real - it's time to profile young Muslim men.