I'm sure somebody out there has taken the time to go back and review the words spoken so eloquently almost 75 years ago, but they were no more appropriate then than they are today:

"This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

At 48, I'm not too old to remember a time in my life when this country and its citizens still had that resolve to stand up, to advance rather than retreat. So what happened? Why do we feel this nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror and feel paralyzed by it? Why aren't we standing up and shouting (loud enough to make Howard Beale proud) "ENOUGH! ENOUGH! ENOUGH!"?

We had a bomb explode a building in Oklahoma City, killing 167 people and inflicting damage upon hundreds more. Are we banning all sales of the ingredients that made up that bomb? Are we banning all rentals of vans that carried that bomb?

So then I ask you, why have we now become paralyzed into keeping quiet for fear of being labeled a terrorist sympathizer? Why have we reduced ourselves into speechless zombies at screening checkpoints, blindly pulling off our 2 year-old's shoes or blindly giving up our 96 year-old grandmother's arthritis cream for the painful knuckles on her hands? Did these things cause the airplanes to fly into the buildings in New York and Washington, D.C.?

Perhaps it is the daily (if not hourly) reminders everywhere we go that we MUST be afraid, we must succumb to fear, because if we don’t, we must be missing something? While there are countless examples of how this happens, one obvious one begs the question: Do we really need those large, flashing signs at the entrance of every airport warning "Suspicious Activity? Call 911"? Without such a sign, would we not be on the lookout for suspicious activity? Or is it that if we did see something suspicious, we wouldn't know who to call? I mean, come on! What’s the fricking point, other than to scare us even more? Do we need these constant reminders everywhere we turn, every news station we tune into, every politician we hear speak? Why? What is to be gained by driving our nation deeper and deeper in a life of fear? So, why are we allowing this to happen? Indeed, have we lost our resolve?

I'm sure somewhere, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is very, very disappointed.

"We are following this path deeper and deeper into absurdity."

Almost invariably when I read articles on terrorism, the theme is confined to security and law enforcement. Rarely does anyone broach the real problem: why terrorists target us. (I realize Patrick Smith is dealing with airport security, so this is not a complaint about this column specifically.)

As reader John Sutcliffe pointed out, we need to change our policies towards Muslim populations, or this insanity will never end. How ironic that this "liquid explosive" plot was divulged while Israel, with US weapons and US backing, was busy killing hundreds of Lebanese civilians in a grossly disproportionate and illegal (if you believe in the validity of the Geneva Conventions) response to a border raid by Hizollah. Can we not put 2 and 2 together? No one hates us because we are free to pop a Bud any time we want. Our actions, our decisions, all carry consequences. We use a blatant double-standard in our dealings with the region, allowing Israel to flout UN Security Council Resolution 242 with impunity, carry out a nuclear weapons program, etc., but destroy Iraq under the bogus pretext that they did not comply with UN resolutions, and hound Iran for working on a nuclear program. We support Israel's de-facto annexation of the West Bank, but attacked Iraq (in '91) because they attempted to annex Kuwait. As if that weren't bad enough we'll support any Muslim leader who toes our line, no matter how despotic, hateful and un-democratic they are to their own people (see Saddam, pre-1991, or the Shah of Iran, among many others). That is why we are hated.

I challenge any reader: Put yourselves in the shoes of the average Arab or Persian Muslim. Would you love us? Or would your blood boil? I know what the honest answer is. It will take years to undo this damage. It will take real concessions by Israel and the US, but it can be done. And it would ultimately be cheaper and safer than maintaining our bloated but largely ineffectual national security apparatus. And maybe, just maybe, we might salvage some of those freedoms we so crow about but, out of fearfulness and timidity, we are so eager to throw away.

Thank you for mentioning the complicity of Americans in the fiasco that is airline security. Every time some new indignity, harassment or inconvenience is foisted upon the travelling public it is met with a chorus of "if it makes us safer, it's well worth it."

To cite just of few examples as to how these measures have not made us safer:

- The TSA screeners have failed an impressive number of tests -- with government and media successfully getting guns, knives, bombs and even missiles past the screeners. Security experts cite the inevitable ineffectiveness of a person staring at a screen for hours on end. Screeners are poorly paid, uneducated, have high turnover (i.e. inexperienced) and are cited by TSA spokespeople as "well-trained" having completed a 1 to 2 week course.

- The measures are always reacting to the last vs. the next incident. Although in the most recent case, the measures do not even seem to address the planned attack. It was reported that the plans called for the use of a bottle with a false bottom. The explosives would be in the lower compartment -- a regular liquid would be in the top in case the terrorist was asked to drink from the bottle. The NY Post reported today that the plan was for one couple to bring their baby along and put the explosives in the bottom of the baby bottle.

- The cargo carried on passenger jets in the U.S. is still not inspected.

Just yesterday, a woman going through security in London made it onto a plane with a screwdriver, multiple lighters and a bottle of water.

It is somewhat apparent that it is impossible to screen for the currently recognized attack weapons -- much less prevent terrorists from identifying new ones.

It is time to have a reasonable national discussion as to which security measures make sense -- and end the "theater" (the term a number of security experts use to refer to airport screening.)