Profiling is totally necessary, but you and I both know that if it ever happens here, it will *have to *be completely secretive. The first disgruntled TSA firee will call CNN, and we know who will take the fall for that one, whether he’s still in office or not!
Dami,
I listed two because I was short of time, I haven’t had a chance to research dates of abortion clinic bombings. young gay men being strung up in Wyoming, churches being burnt to the ground, etc, etc, etc,
I truly believe that apart from a basic notion that all men (humans) being created equal and innocence being assumed until guilt is proven*, profiling simply will not work. The Islamic terrorist will exploit any hole they can find. If you begin focusing only on the profile target, they will find “unprofiled” conspiraters to aid. These people are using women now as sucide bombers, as they are not as suspect as men. How hard would it be to pay somebody to attempt to smuggle the liquid explosives across the TSA perimeter and do a bag switch later?
Should we track visitors to our county better- YES. If your passport is from a country on the terror list., should you be scrutinezed more? Yes. Has our governemnt made substantal progress in making the possible No. We therefore are left with fighting over whether we use skin color or ethinicity to base or profiles.
*Basic tennants of the USA worth fighting for, I believe.
I agree. I also think that as the current policy to eliminate terrorists of “kill them there or fight them there” and being “With us or against us”* has the rather predictable outcome of creating more terrorists. The terroists thrive on chaos, and chaos has been provided for in plenty in Iraq. And any suggestion of changing the policy is met with derision- Redoply and force the Iraqis to get control ->Cut and run. Increase the force and actually get control of the situation → Admit we were wrong from the outset and our plan was a failure, don’t think so…
Anyway, back to topic, it would suck to lose a blackberry on a flight, hope she had her data backed up!
*Two examples of the false dichotomy I was originally pointing out.
What should have been done is to keep the politicians out of the fight and let the military bomb Mecca and keep going east until they hit Afghanistan.
Regardless of what the liberals and Council on American Islam Relations (CAIR) say, Islam is not a peaceful religion. It advocates people either converting to Islam or being killed. It treats women like objects. Did you know that a woman is considered to be an adultress when she is raped unless she can get four men to prove that she was raped?
I believe the military wouldn’t have done it. At each step (1st gulf war*) the military has rightly said we can take the opposing forces out, but will not be able to control the result. The current administration was told this before the Iraq invasion, and they fired the generals for saying it. The only actualachieval military goal was the elimination of OBL and the taliban regime supporting him (and to agree with a part of David’s post) this was aborted early.
And really, - blackberries are pretty cool. I wonder what model it was?
*To clairfy, Bush the first was told not to continue to Bagdad by the military after the primary objective of ejecting Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
Sounds like some folks had some fun last night on UAL 890 after some idiot in fatigues freaked out and tried to open a door while cruising from LAX to Dulles. I would love to have been one of the passengers who “held down and punched” this guy until the air marshals revealed themselves and took this clown into custody.
I don’t know about you, but after reading the story, I get this mental picture of, like, Gary Bussey in his camos w/ his headband and that crazed look in his eyes. 
I don’t know about you, but after reading the story, I get this mental picture of, like, Gary Bussey in his camos w/ his headband and that crazed look in his eyes. Shocked Laughing
Like that role he played in Tommy Boy? Greatness.
It wasn’t a Muslim who shot Abe Lincoln.
It wasn’t a Muslim who shot Franz Josef in Austria-Hungary to start WWI.
Historically, generalizations don’t work.
Nonetheless, I recently saw a documentary movie “Obsession” about Radical Islam. That will scare the pants off you. Furthermore, if I were a moderate Muslim (as 85%-90% are), I’d be in a near-panic to think that profiling/stereotyping is going to make me an enemy in Americans’ eyes as the radical side steps up its terrorism as it inevitably will. They will be victims of Radical Islam as much as anyone else will be.