For those unaware, the Transportation Security Administration keeps a master watch list of everyone they believe to be a terrorist or to have terrorist connections.
Since 2004, this list has grown by a staggering 200,000 names per year, which works out to an addition of 548 names daily.
In 2004, the list contained about 158,000 names, and now holds more than 755,000 and is swiftly nearing the 1 million mark.
Not only will the list become useless at that point – in much the same manner as a completely highlighted page – but it will also become even more of an embarrassment for TSA and the Bush Administration.
Furthermore, adding 548 people per day does not seem to represent a process which is supposed to be manual, and which should involve careful deliberation. With quite a few high-ranking positions empty and with a pitiful budget for administrative tasks (border patrol budgeting and TSA budgeting are fine though – God forbid we let anybody in the country who aren’t ‘Merkins through and through), The Department of Homeland Security can’t possibly employ enough staff to process 548 new names daily.
Of the ungodly number of people on the list, only about 53,000 have been questioned about their ties to terrorism, according to the Government Accounting Office.
Why must the government continue to mire itself in the micromanagement of air travel? I thought we followed a free market, where government only interfered to provide safety to consumers. This steps toward outright state ownership of the airlines, with federal control of passenger lists.
On top of all this, the terrorists have achieved their goal: make Americans afraid to fly or use international travel. Terrorists want us to be afraid. That is their ultimate end objective. If we decide to bow to the measures taken to "secure" us by removing our civil liberties (PATRIOT Act, I’m looking at you), then we don’t deserve the liberties we have. There is no reason to live in fear of anything; to do so only drags us down and keeps us from focusing on things of more importance – such as loving our planet and each other.
Many terrorists and suicide bombers are recruited because it secures financial stability for their families for years to come. Their compensation, usually the equivalent of $10,000, is an enormous sum to most families in the world, and is a great boon.
The people who detonate explosives strapped to their bodies don’t do it for any religious purpose – sure, they’re told they’ll be martyrs for the cause, but they don’t care about that as much as the money. These folks don’t have anything to live for, so they figure they can gain a better life for their families in death. Altruism is one of humanity’s greatest qualities, and thus one of the most exploitable.
If the U.S. were kinder in its relations with less fortunate nations and peoples, perhaps we wouldn’t have men and women dying in an unjustified war for an unjustified cause. Maybe if we weren’t so arrogant, we wouldn’t need a million-person list to deny entry to the country. Maybe if we had some sense we would be better liked worldwide.
Conant, an entrepreneurship freshman, can be reached via [email protected]
