We had virtually no airline security in the 1970s and there were hijack attempts every couple of months..including innocent people dying and a plane that was eventually blown up with no passengers on board.
I sure as hell wouldn't fly if this was going on now.
The real problem is that we aren't allowed to profile.
Because we can't focus on a specific subset of travelers that are suspicious (based on data or behavior), everyone is treated as a threat and we get long lines as a result.
They probably have more terrorist threats than anyone else in the world and have prevented nearly all attacks without the long lines. Mostly through a combination of profiling and hiring specially trained agents instead of $10/hour rent-a-cops to handle security. There's a reason why European Airports are targeted for attack, even though Israel is the main target.
At some point we need to make a choice: political correctness or safety.
I sure as hell wouldn't fly if this was going on now.
The real problem is that we aren't allowed to profile.
Because we can't focus on a specific subset of travelers that are suspicious (based on data or behavior), everyone is treated as a threat and we get long lines as a result.
We can learn a lot from Israel:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-wagner/what-israeli-air...
They probably have more terrorist threats than anyone else in the world and have prevented nearly all attacks without the long lines. Mostly through a combination of profiling and hiring specially trained agents instead of $10/hour rent-a-cops to handle security. There's a reason why European Airports are targeted for attack, even though Israel is the main target.
At some point we need to make a choice: political correctness or safety.