Reader Robert Martin has some further thoughts on the airline security fiasco.

They're all worth a read, but I particularly agree with his final comment.

In all, the visible presence of heavily armed troops in airports is only a public relations gesture that makes no genuine contribution to security. It serves only to fool those who will be fooled by such things. In the meantime, we get to look like a banana republic that is anticipating, undergoing, or recovering from, a coup.

It's even worse than window-dressing! When passengers are victims of crime in an airport, the troops are forbidden to do anything even when they witness it happening because they are not authorized law-enforcement officers. Anecdotal statements have verified that this has happened at more than one large airport.

MommaBear