All passengers should be exempt from TSA's invasive new screening procedures

In the last few days, the Illusion of Security Administration has been doing all it can to keep the backlash against its invasive new screening procedures from exploding into a full-fledged air traveler rebellion. The primary measure that the TSA has been taking is, not surprisingly, to exempt those whose voices are the loudest from having to undergo the procedures.

First it was pilots. Then it was flight attendants. Now the TSA has confirmed it's letting some senior government officials enjoy the same "privilege".

If they're exempt, we should be exempt. Everybody should be exempt.

People clearly feel that the existing restrictions are burdensome enough. The only reason there isn't more outrage is because too many Americans are willing to fall for the "trust us, we know what we're doing" line.

But fortunately, not all. As the old saying goes, It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.

Intrusive machines and uncomfortable crotch inspections are not going to foil the next terrorist attack. It's stupid that we're spending so much money trying to find out what's inside people's clothes and not ramping up our intelligence. The "Christmas Day bomber" would have been stopped before he ever boarded a plane if our much-vaunted intelligence community had been doing its job. Let's face it: Without better intelligence, we're blind. The checkpoints in the airports are just security theater. They're a big, high wall meant to make people feel safe.

Unfortunately, big, high walls simply doesn't prevent attacks. Ask France how well the Maginot Line worked for them during World War II.

A smart terrorist who wants to crash a plane into a building, or a power plant, or a dam, or some other structure could easily steal a small private plane and load it up with explosives. If Colton Harris-Moore (also known as the "Barefoot Bandit") — a teenager with no professional training — could figure out how to get a Cessna 182 into the air and fly it halfway across the country, so could a terrorist.

Or terrorists, plural. Several terrorists could plausibly hijack small planes, fill them with bombs, and then fly into the same target, creating an explosion with the same destructive force as an unarmed Boeing 767.

This is just one scenario. Terrorists could opt to create carnage at our seaports, or try to blow up trains, as they did in Europe. They could attack hotels, like they did in India. They're obviously not afraid to change their approach. The best way we can stop them from carrying out their plots is to intercept them. We do that by improving our intelligence. And specifically, human intelligence. The CIA, NSA, and intelligence community at large have gotten way too reliant on signals intelligence. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned spying?

As important as having good intelligence is, however, it only helps us treat a symptom. To address the root cause of terrorism against the United States, we need to examine what's driving the terrorists.

And the answer is our dependence on fossil fuels.

That's why our military is in the Middle East and in other places around the world: To protect our access to the gooey black stuff we need to make everything work. If we can get ourselves off of fossil fuels, we can pull out of places where we shouldn't be, and terrorists will have less of a reason to want to attack us.

It sure would be nice to be able to just walk on an airplane again, or meet family and friends at the gate as they're coming out of the jetway.