Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Are We Prepared?

An article in today's Washington Times follows up on the disturbing events that occurred on 2004 Northwest Airlines Flight 327 from Detroit to Los Angeles involving 13 Middle Eastern men traveling on expired visas, which were renewed in spite of background checks that turned up positive hits on eight of the men in the FBI's database.

After years of denying the events and even launching character attacks against the passengers who spoke up, there is now an official report stating that there was in fact a dry run on Flight 327 probing our security. But why did the government try to deny it in the first place and impugn the character of its own citizens in the process?

As conservatives, we are skeptical of big government because it breeds bureaucracy, and bureaucracy inevitably makes things worse. But the one area where government is necessary is national defense, and here is more evidence of bureaucratic incompetence.

(Gary Bauer; End of Day; 5/30/07)