Well, I'm off for vacation in a few days, and that means a plane trip. Of course, that has me thinking about some of the craziness in airport security, things that can and cannot be brought with you. X-rays, metal detectors and poorly trained, apathetic baggage handlers who view their job as somewhat akin to a supermarket.
I've been especially thinking about the crazy ideas the governments come up with regarding bombs--and the fuss that the liquid bombs are causing. Because of the small possibility of a terrorist bringing a liquid bomb on the plane (something that never happened and, given the success rate of many of the terrorist bombs, probably wouldn't work anyway) every single person flying in the world now has to suffer the current craziness. They're trying to convince me that they can detect the residue from a bomb that I may have been near by swabbing my suitcase, but I would have to drink a bottle of anything I bring for them to be sure it isn't an explosive?! Yeah. Sure.
So, what really gets me is this. What happens when the governments finally realize that people themselves could be the bombs? What's to stop a terrorist from surgically implanting small powerful explosives under their skin? Perhaps triggerable by cell phone? Or even tubings that carry the binary liquids that only need to have a membrane broken to trigger the explosion?
Such a realization, I fear, would send shockwaves throughout the western world the likes of which we've never seen. Would governments insist that each person be thoroughly x-rayed? Frequent flyers would then be at a serious risk of radiation poisoning. Perhaps companies would then hire a special class of short-lived, high-rish business exec. Or maybe work would start on incorporating radiation resistant genes into humans so we could be thoroughly x-rayed each time we flew. Another possibility would be chips implanted beneath our skin. They would regularly scan for such unwanted substance (the government could combine the war on terror with the war on drugs!). Each person would be required to have these biometric markers to fly. Sort of a 1984 meets Minority Report.
The options are almost endless, and all equally frightening. Does anyone else feel that the terrorists have already won? I'm afraid alright. But not of them...
EH Rydberg
