Somewhere, in his high-security jail cell, the Christmas Day bomber has plenty of reasons to celebrate. After all, his terror plot was quite successful.
While Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab wasn't able to blow up his underwear and kill hundreds of people, he has achieved his greater goal. For the past few weeks, the government and the media have been having a field day, providing never-ending analyses of the flaws in the aviation security system and coming up with ever-more radical ways to overcome them. Yup, Abdulmutallab has brought about what every terrorist desires paranoia and with a pair of underwear to spare.
Just a few days following the Christmas Day incident, an older man on a similar flight from Amsterdam caused a scare worthy of national headlines after staying in the airplane's bathroom for a little too long. After that, some guy in New Jersey slipped past the airport's security post to say goodbye to his girlfriend and the entire terminal had to be evacuated. And just last Wednesday, an upset passenger wrote some "provocative" quotes mentioning Gilligan's Island on a comment card while in flight from Oregon to Hawaii. Naturally, this "threat" forced the plane to turn around and be escorted back to Oregon by fighter jets, where the passenger was promptly arrested. The lesson learned? If you inasmuch as sneeze while on a plane nowadays, you risk being accompanied by fighter jets for the rest of your flight and potentially being arrested afterwards.
At the end of the day, terrorism isn't really about killing the enemy it is about scaring them into doing what you want. Death and destruction are merely a means of spreading fear and havoc. Sure, we were all unnerved to hear that Abdulmutallab was able to come so close to blowing up a plane, but a handful of natural aviation disasters occur every year and we have come to accept that flying always entails some risk. Yet the government's overreaction to this incident has exacerbated the scare and brought it to the verge of paranoia. The so-called "increased security" has translated to re-routing planes, sending out fighter jets and making arrests whenever there is the slightest bit of unrest. And now, at all U.S. airports there are plans to employ full-body scanners that can see through clothing.
Of course, none of these measures will truly impede the efforts of cunning terrorists, who will eventually find a way around any new security measures we implement. Instead, it is the general public that has to suffer from inconvenience and invasions of privacy, not to mention increased anxiety. Emily Johnson '12 ("Timeout, TSA," Jan. 5) was spot-on in arguing that the agency should not make any major changes following the bombing attempt. Every radical action taken to "improve" security brings about renewed fear as the public is reminded once again of the ever-present possibility of a terrorist attack. How much should be we concerned about such a possibility anyway? According to the National Safety Council, the odds of dying from a terrorist-caused airplane accident are one in 55 million.
Ultimately, the government needs to accept the fact that our aviation security system is not perfect, nor will it ever be no matter how many barriers, screens and scanners passengers must go through. The unfortunate truth is that if terrorists are wholly committed to destroying a plane, they will find a way. Airport security measures are only there to make the jobs of terrorists a little more difficult and more importantly, to provide a sense of comfort for the rest of us. In all this fear about the shortfalls of our aviation security system, many have overlooked the fact that no terrorist has succeeded in attacking an airplane since the TSA was created following 9/11. The current system in place is good enough, and the drastic steps needed to prevent another Abdulmutallab are simply not worth the significant consequences for travelers.
A gloomy prospect? Well, consider that compared to the one-in-55-million chance of getting killed by terrorists while flying, the odds of dying from drinking too much alcohol are one in 11,000. So before you fall for the government's paranoia and let the TSA check your underwear for explosives, remember that you're 5000 times more likely to die from your next Friday night escapade.
