I've struggled for over a week to get some coherent thoughts down about the "Black Tuesday" attack, but have been hampered by incessant waves of sorrow, rage, and regret. How could we have been so careless, so stupid, as to allow this to happen?

I still don't know. I think is was completely unavoidable, save for one missed opportunity. If it hadn't been bin Laden, it would have been the next terrorist in line, as I am sure we will find out that he was sponsored by a national government, most likely Iran or Iraq. I'm voting Iraq, but that's another post...

We have been living in a fool's paradise, choosing to ignore the repeated warnings from all manner of studies, in and out of government, that have pointed out that we are naked and helpless to terrorist attacks in general, and attacks on our airlines in particular. The voices cried in the wilderness - no one listened.

Study after study demonstrated the inadequacy of baggage examination - 80% failure rates on some tests. Several recent studies pointed out our widespread vulnerability to any manner of terrorist attack - such studies were characterized as the work of alarmists, or as commisioned by entities seeking to exaggerate the threat in order to expand their beaureaucratic turf or opportunity for private profit.

Still, wasting time and emotion on recriminations is pointless, primarily for the reason that we, meaning our society, would never have accepted the draconian security measures now about to be implemented before last Tuesday.

Any airline, before now, that had policies for thorough searches of baggage, and all the consequent delays, expense, and inconvenience that entail, would simply have been doomed in the marketplace, as the general public would give their business to cheaper and more hassle-free carriers. Any public or private security entity that attempted to implement the drastic invasions of our personal privacy and civil liberties that are now about to rain down upon us would have been strongly resisted.

Our next important task is choosing our enemies well.

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