You cannot win fighting yesterday's war

I am beginning to think that the best commentary on the state of the United States is being expressed by the editorial cartoonists. Now, least you think that cartoons are supposed to be happy an joyful, let me remind you that they are always been more about satire than about silly bubble headed caricatures. Today, Toles (who appears in the Washington Post) points out yet again why the Transportation Security Administration just cannot get it right.

However, it raises a serious issue. I have documented, several times, the joke that the TSA is and their lack of direction in implementing any sort of security for the traveling public beyond the window dressing and feel good measures that they have implemented thus far. As pointed out (finally) by several members of Congress, if you put unscreened packages in the cargo hold of a commercial jet liner, then you might just as well put unscreened travelers in the passenger compartment - there is no benefit and only an increase in cost. Unfortunately, the TSA does not see it this way saying it is impractical to screen 100% of all packages. Impractical? It is impractical to expect that the airlines can afford to feed the traveling public (which they will have to start doing as long as this stupid ban on liquid is in place. It is impractical to ground airline travel in a futile bid to win the war on terrorism (no, you cannot defeat an ism...I have said this before and I have not changed my stand).

I bring two wise old owl sayings to you (again). The first is from Bruce Cockburn, in is song, The Trouble With Normal written back in 1983:

Suddenly it's repression, moratorium on rights
What did they think the politics of panic would invite?
Person in the street shrugs -- "Security comes first"
But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse

The second from Frank Herbert in his book Dune, written in the 1960s - Paul is talking with his old friend Gurney Halleck, just after Paul has captured Gurney and his men in the deep bled where they should not be. Paul asks Gurney what the talk is about Raban in the villages:

"They say they've fortified the graben villages to the point where you cannot harm them They say they need only sit inside their defenses while you wear yourself out in futile attack." [Gurney]

"In a word," Paul said, "they are immobilized."

"While you can go where you will," Gurney said.

"It is a tactic I learned from you," Paul said. "They've lost the initiative, which means they have lost the war." (Dune, Ace Imprint, pg. 414)

One has to wonder, how close is the United States government to adopting the plans of the Beast Raban?