We are told that airport security is here to protect us. We don’t mind taking off our shoes or waiting in an hour-long line because we know that it’s to keep us safe.

But are these expensive measures really effective?

Many in the Department of Homeland Security say post-9/11 measures have been successful. The truth is that the TSA is a waste of tax-payer time and money. Jeffery Goldberg personally tests the limits of our airport security and chronicles it in the Atlantic. Airport security is merely out to catch stupid terrorists. If a terrorist tries to bomb a plane with a shoe, checking all shoes will not stop a terrorist with a shred of common sense. There will always be a way for terrorists to get past security. Throwing billions of dollars at invasive technology that won’t prevent an attack is not money well spent on our war on terror.

With all of these new measures in play why would an intelligent terrorist even bother attacking a plane? Our subways and trains at certain times hold many more people than a plane can fit; there is no security on the trains and subways I take on a weekly basis. Also, if one were to bomb a line for airport security they would find an unsecured place where hundreds of people are very close together.

Does this mean we should have security before all of these places where large amounts of people congregate?

No. Fighting today’s terrorist with the information from a previous attack will never work. Instead of wasting time and money on new security measures that make simple transportation look more and more like a police-state in the making, we should spend the money on different ways to combat terrorism. Giving money for humanitarian aid in terrorist hotbeds might do more to curb extremism than invading the country to ‘fix the problem’. I don’t claim to have the answer to that question; the possibilities are endless and should be debated upon more in the public setting. One thing is clear, our present strategy is not working.