Mass murder in the skies?
The Register has an excellent summary of the current state of our “national security policy” – the furore over “binary liquid explosives” that can be brewed from safe liquids that can be disguised as cosmetics is based almost entirely on Hollywood science rather than real science. In other words, it’s impossible. The fuss is over nothing and reveals the almost total ignorance of the “experts” guiding our countries.
Binary liquid explosives are a sexy staple of Hollywood thrillers. It would be tedious to enumerate the movie terrorists who’ve employed relatively harmless liquids that, when mixed, immediately rain destruction upon an innocent populace…
The funny thing about these movies is, we never learn just which two chemicals can be handled safely when separate, yet instantly blow us all to kingdom come when combined. Nevertheless, we maintain a great eagerness to believe in these substances, chiefly because action movies wouldn’t be as much fun if we didn’t…
The Register has got to ask, were these [supposed terrorists] for real, or have they, and the counterterrorist officials supposedly protecting us, been watching too many action movies?...
The other thing that strikes me again and again when hearing about all the new security procedures in our airports is this – whatever happened to “proportionate response”? Even setting aside the implausibility of the threat, the new strictures on travellers are ridiculous. We’re simply playing into the hands of the real terrorists (by letting ourselves be persuaded into terror), as well as of the mass media (who just want to sell more newspapers and make money) and politicians (who exploit the hysteria they generate to gather more and more power to themselves and their inheritors).
If we give away the things that we value in the name of “security”, we lose everything and gain nothing. For total security is impossible. And if we truly wanted to save human lives, we’d get a far better return if we focused on the real big killers – AIDS, cars and poverty.
pax et bonum
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