It is a prison here in Baghdad. We are surrounded by concrete walls 12 feet tall, razor wire, and armed guards 24/7. All our movments are controlled.

In this environment, you have one of three choices: get searched, get killed, or go home. If things get as bad back home as they are here, everyone will be reduced to the same three choices.

It really doesn't matter much what you are willing to do. If things go wrong, you will have to make a choice. The question is, where will you go? Fortunately, it hasn't become as bad as it is here, yet. So you have more choices, and searches are unlawful only as long as the law does not change. Oops, the law has changed now, hasn't it. The Patriot Act allows things that were not possible before.

If you cannot detect the threat from a distance, then you must treat everyone as a hostile, or die. Unless people are willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of others, this is where we are headed. Is it going to be every man for himself? It already is here, more or less.

Let me put it another way. If Shopping malls across the country were being systematically targeted by terrorists, and no one did anything to secure the remaining malls, do you think people would continue to just come and go like nothing is happening? I would not go back there until I was sure it was safe to do so, and that requires unfortunately that everyone coming and going be searched. There simply is no other way to go about it.