Airport Security

Back in the early 90s I went to Austria on a business trip. At the time I was impressed with the striking difference in airport security there to here in the US. In the Frankfurt Germany airport there were roaming security personnel in groups of 2, usually with a dog. At least 1 of the 2 carried a submachine gun. And then in Graz Austria we were guarded by men carrying submachine guns until cleared by customs. That was significantly more security than here at the time.

On this recent trip to Germany and Poland I was once again impressed by the difference in airport security. Only this time the security appeared to be a bit lax compared to the past. I didn’t see any armed roaming security. We went through the standard metal detectors and someone looked at our passports, but no questions were asked and there was absolutely no customs inspection. The only arms I saw were in Poland where each metal detector crew had 1 individual with a pistol.

I suppose we here in the US are the targets now, making most of Europe feel a whole lot safer.

The security here probably makes the uninformed feel safer and may actually be somewhat effective in stopping the less than smart terrorist, but for the most part it's just an expensive feel-good operation.