To recap: 9/11 happens. Government takes unprecedented action to fight terrorists abroad. Government attempts to take unprecedented action to fight terrorists within USA. Practitioners of the liberal religion block attempts to fight terrorists within USA. Government bureaucrats introduce mediocre measures to fight terrorists within USA - including this fiasco outlined by Michelle Malkin on Hot Air.

U.S. Marshals on flights are a good idea. Air Marshals would be well-equipped and well-trained and well worth their monetary cost should terrorists ever try to hijack another plane. BUT, as with nearly every government program, idiotic bureaucrats have ruined it.

Part of the value of air marshals is their anonymity. The idea that an air marshal could be lurking on nearly any flight in the USA is a deterrant to terrorists. Yet, idiotic bureaucrats concluded that the Air Marshals needed to abide by a DRESS CODE. Yes, a dress code. Plus, they had to identify themselves to airline staff prior to boarding. Doesn't that reduce some of their anonymity? Wouldn't that alert terrorists waiting to hijack the plane to which passengers they needed to kill first before carrying out the rest of their jihadist mission?

It is times like this when I wish we could disband all but the most essential government offices and programs. I wish airlines who can't make profits would go out of business. The whole point of being in business is not to provide services, but to make profits. If your company can't make profits, your company shouldn't be in business. I also wish airlines could hire their own private security firms. I don't understand why airlines are different from parking lots, or any other business. They're not owned by the government, why do government bureaucrats feel like it's their responsibility to determine security procedures for the airlines? A competent, well-equipped security firm would know the minute a terrorist walked into an airport. Yet we sit in shock and watch day old surveillance tapes of terrorists in airports the day after the WTC is knocked down.

Would Congress feel different about this if United 93 had made it to Washington unhindered by heroic passengers? Today, they risk all of our lives while flying around the country in private jets. If we want to fly, we have to do so on airlines that are propped up by the government, and under security regulations that prevent security from being attained while they assure us that everything possible is being done to assure safety. There are indeed endless safety instructions regarding cabin doors, oxygen masks, what aisle you're sitting in, how to buckle your seatbelt, and everything else that is irrelevant to terrorism and the destruction of the airplane.

I prefer no security over the impression of security, and I wish they would let the airlines control their own airplanes.