TSA’s Newest Potential Terrorists: Soldiers Returning From Afghanistan

posted at 11:13 am on November 19, 2010 by Cassy Fiano

The entire point of these inane TSA policies is supposedly to prevent terrorists from bombing or hijacking planes. So far, TSA’s potential terrorists have been three-year-old children, nuns, middle-aged American citizens, and eighty-year-old grannies. Curiously, there haven’t been many mentions of Muslims being subjected to groping or body scanners, so I guess we can assume that TSA assumes that we’re the potential terrorists, and not Muslim extremists – the only group of people on the planet ever responsible for terrorism in the skies.

TSA’s newest group of potential terrorists? Soldiers returning home from Afghanistan, where they actually were fighting terrorists. Their brilliant strategy to keep us safe from these potential mass-murderers? Letting them keep their rifles and pistols, but taking away their real weapons: nail clippers!

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.

Nevermind that these soldiers had been inspected multiple times already. Nevermind that these soldiers had been kept in a secure holding area for two hours. Nevermind that these soldiers were returning from war, where they risked their lives to keep us safe. TSA must inspect them anyways, because hey, they could be terrorists.

Don’t you feel safer now?

Aside from the obvious absurdity of taking nail clippers away from someone carrying a rifle — because nail clippers are clearly more dangerous than a rifle — this is outrageous. This is how we’re treating our men and women in uniform now? Here we have men returning from war, from fighting the same terrorists that TSA is purportedly trying to keep us safe from, and they’re being treated like criminals. This goes beyond pure stupidity. It’s insulting. It’s insulting to our men and women in uniform, it’s insulting to the Americans who actually value their sacrifice, and it’s insulting to anyone who possesses even a modicum of common sense.

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Follow Cassy on Twitter and read more of her work at CassyFiano.com and Hard Corps Wife.

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