TSA and risk: perspective, please

by Wendy Thomson on February 28, 2012

The editorial board of the Asbury Park Press recently fretted that we need to keep our guard up, the reason being, “. . . as we know too well, there are countless other would-be terrorists out there just like him” (“him” refers to Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called Underwear Bomber).

So may I challenge this sentence that is stated as truth? The collective “we” does not know “all too well.” In fact, statistics over the last ten years clearly indicate that “countless” is anything but.

As indicated previously, statistics prove that the risk of terrorist attack is less than assumed by the editorial writer. Far less.

The risk of terrorist activity within the US, as measured by observing non-TSA-guarded venues and methods of transportation, is less than that of (1) driving (2) sugar (3) tobacco (4) fat (5) bathtubs (6) showers (7) physical inactivity. The list goes on and on.

The author presents as justification that there was one man, Abdulmutallab, who attempted to blow up a plane.

One man does not an argument make. Neither do two. Nor three. Certainly not when put up against the affronts to the Bill of Rights, nor against the enormous costs of the DHS in general and the TSA in particular.

Not to be melodramatic, but the TSA is a festering, angry, putrid, oozing pustule upon the otherwise fair face of Liberty.

No, Anonymous Opiner in Asbury Park, we do not need to fixate on airplane security. We need to apply calm reason to the actual threat and develop a proportionately reasonable response. The TSA in its current incarnation is anything but.

(Photo: Flickr/Ged Carroll)

Tagged as: Airport, Security, Travel, TSA