My Beef with Al Qaeda

I don't call them terrorists because, frankly, I am not particularly terrified of dying. As to the twin towers of the World Trade Center, loss of life aside, the buildings were a blight on the New York City skyline. So, no, my complaint about Al Qaeda is quite different.

Having just come back from a numbing 12 hours of international flight, my beef with Al Qaeda is that they've made one part of life stupidly annoying: air travel.

The stupidity isn't really their fault, of course. For that we have the stalwart men and women of the "war on terror" who are forever closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.

• 19 Al Qaedans commandeered four planes in one day? Ground all planes.
• A Brit nut tries to set fire to his sneaker on a plane? Force everyone to take off their shoes.
• Other suspected malefactors carried some kind of explosive fuel instead of cologne or toothpaste? Ban all liquids, including especially legitimate aftershave and duty-free foreign wine.
  

And so on ... per saecula saeculorum, amen. When will they start catching, trying and meting out deserved justice to the miscreants, instead of the sheepish rest of us?