Mike Yon on American airport bullies.
What could I say to alleviate any of this? Could I say, “This is the U.S., nothing to be afraid of.”? The world already sees us as senseless bullies. Aew might have been detained indefinitely; even I was concerned that the Department of Homeland Security might detain Aew for no reason. Essentially, she had no rights. They had already coerced her e-mail password out of her head through intimidation.
This does not make me feel safe: Our Homeland Security was focusing on a 40-year-old Thai bank officer while there are real bad guys out there. Thailand and the United States have had good relations for 175 years, and Thailand is one of the few countries in the world that is proud to say they are friends of the United States. There are no threats to Americans from Thai people — who, among other relevant things, are mostly not Muslims. The King of Thailand was born in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard. I have never seen the King with a gun; only a camera. His 2009 New Year’s speech was also a call for peace. The King and his family helped bring widespread education to Thailand, which created a special problem. Today there are large numbers of highly educated, successful women looking for highly educated men. I remember General (ret.) McCaffrey, our former drug Czar, telling me a couple of years ago that the King of Thailand was incredibly important in wiping out opium poppies in Thailand. The King of Thailand is highly respected by the government of the United States. He is a very good man.
In the long run, in our foolishly named War on Terror, the Department of Homeland Security, which is also poorly named, is doing a lot of damage. I’d venture to say that DHS breaks a whole lot more than it fixes. The world we live in runs on goodwill. DHS has no idea how to create goodwill. It creates the opposite. This is a branch of the federal government that harasses, inconveniences, condescends, spies on and generally bullies everyone it comes into contact with. Why the hell do we think that is going to reduce terrorism in the long run?