But for the lack of a lock on a cockpit door…

I’m going to echo Eric’s thoughts on the Christmas Day testicle roast that now has America again looking at airport security, with Republicans already using the issue to attack our country’s president.

Back in the day before such calm leadership graced the White House this would be an opportunity to exploit the fears of the American people….Mouth breathing Obama bashing Palin sycophants only understand monosyllabic grunts that talk about Muslims, terr-rists, and war.? They don?t even recognize competent leadership when they see it.

I’m actually quite happy that Republicans came out the gate bashing Obama, even interrupting their Christmas Day to do so. ?Because average Americans – read “swing voters” – have known all along that if there was a lock on the cockpit doors on 9/11, the world would be a different place today.

I’ve done a lot of international travel, much of it through Schipol in Amsterdam, where the testicle roaster changed planes. ?And it has been obvious to me since well before 9/11 that the way to defeat security is precisely the way this fellow did it. ?Get on a plane in someplace (say…Nigeria) where it is easy to defeat security, perhaps bribe your way on, then change planes within the security envelope in, say, Amsterdam.

Hell, I’ve done it myself. ?I once had to bribe my way through passport control in Almaty, Kazakhstan – long story, but I was without the proper visa, in the middle of the night, the visa office was conveniently closed, which is a situation post-soviet passport control people love to have you in, the better to meet your good friend Ben Franklin by.

Once en route to your connecting city, no second security check – you’re already inside the castle walls. ?Just hit the McDonald’s in the airport, and wait for the plane to board. ?En route to the US, whenever I change planes in Amsterdam, or Frankfurt, or London, my guard is up a little higher, a bit more alert, knowing that whoever got to this flight from an originating city would be waltzing through carrying whatever they managed to get by security in their original flight from…say…Lagos.

Leadership matters. ?Republican leadership after 9/11 took our country and the world down a rabbit hole into hell, when it was plainly obvious from Minute One that the 19 hijackers merely walked through doors left open by our system’s gaping loop holes in security. ?We have spent years working on that security, seemingly chasing our own tails, and it looks like we need to do more work. ?But the solution is not some war, either in Yemen, or Nigeria, or anywhere else.

Just as the solution to 9/11 was not to invade Iraq. ?It was to destroy Al Qaeda, wherever they were, and PUT A FUCKING LOCK ON THE COCKPIT DOOR FOR GOD’S SAKE. ?It is an outrage that incoming flights to the US from Amsterdam Schipol still do not subject connecting passengers to another thorough security check. ?Whether or not that would have stopped testicle roaster dude, who knows. ?But that’s where the hole is.

Thank God we have mature leadership in the White House that can bring resources to bear on the problem, instead of using the opportunity to deploy resources in service to some absurd ideology.