Reply #25: Exactly [View All]

[14thColony]

And that tends to be the nature of security: slam the barn door shut just as the last horse bolts - defend against the last threat, not the next one. The 9/11 hijackers used box cutters, so that was the new paranoia. Reid used a (half-assed) shoe bomb, so now we must fear shoes. It goes back a long way in time: In World War I the French bled in the trenches, so they built the Maginot Line to make sure they won the next trench war. Trouble is the Germans simply found a new way to attack. In most cases the enemy does not use the last means of attack (he's not stupid), so often the last one is the most pointless one to defend against. To defend against 'the last thing they did' is merely the facade of security.

God forbid if someone finds a way to make cloth out of plastique or sew blasting cord into their clothes. Reaction: we'll all be flying naked.