I agree 100%. I have an aversion to anyone prying into my business as it is and I can have a sharp and sarcastic tongue. I would be asking for trouble because I don't take being humiliated in stride.
I passed up last fall, right after 9/11 what would have been a wonderful opportunity to see Europe, as well as gvinig me several extra weeks' work. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Fortunately it was not a mandatory trip or I may have found myself without a job. I am not fond of flying anyway, prefering driving whenever possible. Now, I have the attutude that if I can't drive I don't need to go. It isn't fear of terrorists so much as aversion to the invasive and ineffective tactics being used by incompetent and often non-American security screeners.
Too bad. I went over a few months ago and it was a bit of an eye-opener to see the difference in quality between the screeners in Frankfurt and screeners in America,
First off, in Frankfurt they spoke good English. :-)
But beyond that it was hard to quantify.
Everybody put their shoes through the x-ray (as if x-rays detect explosives...)
Everybody got wanded. (Politely, and quickly.)
At least some were subjected to a quick questioning ("Did you buy anything after the first checkpoint?", but he could have been looking for something else).
The careful inspection of ticket, passport, face, and another question -- followed by a "Thank you, Mr. Eala, you may proceed to the lounge."
Maybe it wasn't much better; in some ways it was more searching and less invasive (despite knowing a little of how some of these checks are used to screen), and definitely more efficient at keeping the lines moving past the two serial checkpoints and all the aforementioned checks.
As soon as I got back to the States, there was some joker who kept stopping the line and leaving his post every time something dissatisfied him. (And of course his English was poor, so nobody ever understood what he wanted...) I nearly missed what should have been an easy connection.