Leadership is "Top Down" in the US

Wisdom is a precious thing. Apparently it is completely absent in America.

From an administration unable to see that unemployement was a problem at 10% and was shocked to lose the mid-term elections, to the TSA organization that doesn't realize that terrorist don't do their first field operations at age 3 months and that 90 year old grandmothers are not in the business of charging down the aisle in a plane to "takeover" the plane so that she can have 70 virgins in Paradise...

Here is the latest stupidity from TSA ensuring "security" for US troops flying back from deployment in Afghanistan:

As the Chalk Leader for my flight home from Afghanistan, I witnessed the following:

When we were on our way back from Afghanistan, we flew out of Baghram Air Field. We went through customs at BAF, full body scanners (no groping), had all of our bags searched, the whole nine yards.

Our first stop was Shannon, Ireland to refuel. After that, we had to stop at Indianapolis, Indiana to drop off about 100 folks from the Indiana National Guard. That’s where the stupid started.

First, everyone was forced to get off the plane–even though the plane wasn’t refueling again. All 330 people got off that plane, rather than let the 100 people from the ING get off. We were filed from the plane to a holding area. No vending machines, no means of escape. Only a male/female latrine.

It’s probably important to mention that we were ALL carrying weapons. Everyone was carrying an M4 Carbine (rifle) and some, like me, were also carrying an M9 pistol. Oh, and our gunners had M-240B machine guns. Of course, the weapons weren’t loaded. And we had been cleared of all ammo well before we even got to customs at Baghram, then AGAIN at customs.

The TSA personnel at the airport seriously considered making us unload all of the baggage from the SECURE cargo hold to have it reinspected. Keep in mind, this cargo had been unpacked, inspected piece by piece by U.S. Customs officials, resealed and had bomb-sniffing dogs give it a one-hour run through. After two hours of sitting in this holding area, the TSA decided not to reinspect our Cargo–just to inspect us again: Soldiers on the way home from war, who had already been inspected, reinspected and kept in a SECURE holding area for 2 hours. Ok, whatever. So we lined up to go through security AGAIN.

This is probably another good time to remind you all that all of us were carrying actual assault rifles, and some of us were also carrying pistols.

So we’re in line, going through one at a time. One of our Soldiers had his Gerber multi-tool. TSA confiscated it. Kind of ridiculous, but it gets better. A few minutes later, a guy empties his pockets and has a pair of nail clippers. Nail clippers. TSA informs the Soldier that they’re going to confiscate his nail clippers. The conversation went something like this:

TSA Guy: You can’t take those on the plane.

Soldier: What? I’ve had them since we left country.

TSA Guy: You’re not suppose to have them.

Soldier: Why?

TSA Guy: They can be used as a weapon.

Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And I’m allowed to take it on.

TSA Guy: Yeah but you can’t use it to take over the plane. You don’t have bullets.

Soldier: And I can take over the plane with nail clippers?

TSA Guy: [awkward silence]

Me: Dude, just give him your damn nail clippers so we can get the f**k out of here. I’ll buy you a new set.

Soldier: [hands nail clippers to TSA guy, makes it through security]

This might be a good time to remind everyone that approximately 233 people re-boarded that plane with assault rifles, pistols, and machine guns–but nothing that could have been used as a weapon.

I personally have no idea of whether the above is a true story. It could be a hoax. But from everything I've read, this is really "standard operating procedure" for TSA, i.e. a completely idiotic, brain-dead "security theatre" operation which does nothing to ensure security but which drives people crazy.

But this kind of stupidity comes from the top. Obama may be a smart guy, but he is leading the US in a most stupid way. He's losing elections. He is showing he can't negotiate with Republicans other than by first handing them all his marbles and then saying "now let's share those marbles!". He runs a TSA which has gone completely beserk over "security".

I've known a lot of "smart" academic types who couldn't find their way out of wet paper bag. I'm starting to think Obama is one of them. He has proved that he can get speech writers to write words for him, he has shown that he could handle the grueling slog of a presidential campaign, but he has yet to show that he can govern, that he can show wisdom, that he realizes that a leader has to "lead".