So who’s winning the war on terror?
The terrorists, say an increasing number of people. “Terrorist types are winning,” says David McCaig, president of the Association of Canadian Travel Agents.
New aviation security measures in the wake of the failed Christmas Day Detroit bombing are creating delays, causing privacy concerns and leading to passengers losing the right to bring carry-on baggage, he told Canwest News Service.
"I think the whole thing is going to hurt business and I don’t just mean travel business," McCaig said in a telephone interview.
He is far from being alone — even polls have started to become pessimistic on the subject.
“I’m offended and want my government to know it. I’m tired of being treated like a criminal,” says Barbara Simpson in a WorldNetDaily commentary. She added:
“I don’t want to walk in stocking feet on dirty floors where thousands of feet have walked. I don’t want strangers patting and touching my body. I don’t want my personal items pawed through. I don’t want to be exposed to machines that invade my privacy and could have health consequences.”
She complained she is tried of being treated like a criminal by her own government in her own country.
She says she was horrified at the Kansas City airport while she watched as four TSA people focused on a frail woman in her late 80s who was in a wheelchair as they tried to get her through security.
There were only two lines, so passengers had to wait as they made her get out of the chair and forced her to walk through the machine. She was so frail, they had to hold her up.
She concluded: “The terrorists are winning.”
Writes Atanu Dey in a blog:
“We are giving up our basic freedoms little by little in response to every act of Islamic terrorism. Both in the air and on the ground.”
Belief that the bad guys are winning the “war on terror” is now at its highest level in over two years, and nearly half of US voters say America is not safer than it was before 9/11.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that almost one-third of voters think the terrorists are winning the “war.” That’s the first time the number holding that pessimistic view has reached that level since October of 2007.
Just 18 percent believed the terrorists were winning the week President Obama took office in January. At that time, 55 percent said America and its allies were on top.
Now, just 36 percent say the United States and its allies are winning the “war.” Only once since July of 2007 have voters had less confidence.
By David Wilkening
David
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