[NewTeaBag]

The threats are real and tangible.

Pre 9/11 and post 9/11 the threats were both real and tangible.

Drunk driving is horrid but widespread and so dependent upon individual behavior it is far more difficult to stop. The same goes for the "war on drugs." Until we remove the drunks and the drug users, both fights are diffiult uphill battles. Also, the effect of the indiviual incidents is minor (in terms of scale of injury and damage). OTH, air terrorism is large scale both in terms of deaths and damage and serious steps can and are being taken to minimize the probabilities.

As for terroism, specifically air type terrorism, myself and those better informed, smarter, and more experienced than me were warning of a 9/11 type attack long before 9/11. For a list of reasons the Clinton Administration (and their security chieftains) decided to minimize the threat and dedicate inadequate resources to the threat as well as handcuffing those of us on the front lines in the battle. The same goes for Bush in his 1st 9 months in office. It took a 9/11 just to wake up a lot of politicians to the "realness" of the threat. Now think about the American public. Would they even be close to accepting the newer airport security measures/inconveniences had there been NO 9/11? I seriously doubt it. Think about the disturbance many are expressing POST 9/11.

Now where do we stand today? The Bush admin and his security chieftains have now gone well overboard in many respects and still only dedicate inadequate resources in what some of us experts believe are high threat, high value target areas. Air travel security is one of the few that has gotten a much more seroius upgrade. As I said before, I could make a list of reccomendations that would just about eliminate the threat of using civilian airliners as terrorist weapons, but if your peuking on current measures you would vomit 16 times if my reccomendations were enacted. IOW, TSA is making air travel a harder target but not an impregnable one.