Feeling Safer Yet?

I think I'm going to start driving whenever I travel:

Nearly all of the cargo in the nation's aviation system goes unchecked for explosives, and policies aimed at thwarting cargo bombs on passenger planes are flawed, according to a government report due out Wednesday.

Terrorists could foil the government's strategy for keeping bombs out of cargo holds by meeting a few basic requirements that would allow them to put an explosives-laden package on a jet, the Government Accountability Office said.

I can understand how many people think going to Iraq was a good idea. I don't agree -- but I can understand their point of view. What I can't understand how anyone can feel that it makes us safer in contrast to focusing on issues like the above.

Hypothetically, say we found piles and piles of WMDs in Iraq and the whole world was overjoyed with our insistence of going there (which, by the way, I think we're all aware didn't happen. What do you do first? Prod the very enemy that you feel threatened by -- or put up a proper defense against their most threatened activities?

I always hear the weak argument "well you're never going to be able to totally protect yourself from terrorists, so you need to go after them". To me, that gets nullified by the opposite weak argument "well you're never going to be able to go out and catch all the terrorists, so you need to protect yourself at home".

Chicken or the egg. And all the while everyone else gets turned into an omelet.