|
News, commentary, opinion on politics, government, books, social trends, American life, travel, cycling, books, other stuff
|
|
|
There are a great many problems in the world and it is difficult to pick just one and say, “Let’s put our resources into that”. Often when that happens it results in wasted time and money, like the massive response to the terrorist hijackings of 9-11, 2001, that now sees our country stuck with prison like searches for most people at airports. The missing flight of Malaysian Air 370, however, could be one of those times when we need to pull out the stops.
There might be no great threat to public safety from this missing flight, but then again, there might be. We live in a dangerous world. If we can spend trillions of dollars on technology and people to search 82 year old grandmothers boarding commercial flights, can we spend 200 million to find this missing aircraft, pronto? The search area has expanded to an almost impossibly wide zone, which is why a major, coordinated international effort should be put in place. Whatever assets the U.S. and other technologically advanced countries can bring into the hunt should be applied. The biggest benefit would be dozens of additional search aircraft, even a hundred or more, aircraft that could fly patterns across the wide search zone.
Nations, including ours, don’t like to admit they need help. (Remember Katrina and the Bush response to offers?). This is understandable. Now, with the probability that some sort of hijacking of this aircraft occurred, it is time to pivot to another plan. The U.S. doesn’t have to appear to take the lead, but hundreds of aircraft and boats could be brought into the search on the southern potentialities and the matter likely resolved within days. (Searching over land is much more complicated because it involves getting permission from governments, like Pakistan and India, that are less than friendly with each other and not interested in cooperation.)
The odds are high that the airliner was crashed rather than taken to a remote airport. In any case, the world needs answers, as do the governments which attempt to protect their citizens from such events. This is no time for holding back and no time to be excessively worried about hurting the feelings of smaller nations. It is a time to put a major, no holds barred effort into finding answers.
Doug Terry, 3.16.14
(Note: The TerryReport does not usually offer prescriptive commentaries urging specific actions. This case is an exception.)
|
|
