The TSA is an unneeded and unwanted agency, that came out of a knee-jerk reaction from Washington (and you're surprised?) Believe it or not, the TSA would NOT have prevented 9/11, other than MAYBE taking the box cutters from them (and from the amount of 'weapons' that actually get through, I doubt the TSA would have taken them). The TSA, like so many other government agencies, has become a bloated, red-tape entangled, heavy on administrators and light on actual workers, entity.
9/11 was successful because of the hijacking policies in place at the time. Pilots were told to allow a hijacker to take over, as history had shown, hijackers just wanted to be taken to another country, or demand someone(s) be released from prison, or they wanted money, or ... you get the idea. Hijackers up to that point wanted things, not to martyr themselves or crash the planes. All-in-all, the hijackers of 9/11 took over the planes using something the TSA can't even begin to deal with - words.
We've addressed the actual 'taking over the plane' issue - there is a
bar across the door and flight attendants are trained to make sure no
one goes forward in the cabin (and I doubt any passengers would allow it
as well). There is no need for the TSA. None at all.
Now, I do agree we still need some security, just like we had before 9/11. That type of security did us very well for decades and we need to go back to it. We have much more sophisticated technology now (and not-so-sophisticated - the use of explosive-sniffing dogs is on the rise and they are doing a 100% better job than any TSA agent) that the probability of an explosive getting through the front line (we won't address the back line of checked luggage - it's a crapshoot), is very, very small.
There are other things we could do, we could learn from other countries, but getting rid of the TSA would be the number 1 thing we could do at this point. Kudos to those airports that have decided to privatize.
Now, I do agree we still need some security, just like we had before 9/11. That type of security did us very well for decades and we need to go back to it. We have much more sophisticated technology now (and not-so-sophisticated - the use of explosive-sniffing dogs is on the rise and they are doing a 100% better job than any TSA agent) that the probability of an explosive getting through the front line (we won't address the back line of checked luggage - it's a crapshoot), is very, very small.
There are other things we could do, we could learn from other countries, but getting rid of the TSA would be the number 1 thing we could do at this point. Kudos to those airports that have decided to privatize.
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