Benjamin Franklin warned "Those who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."  The TSA is now asking us to give up a little more of our essential liberty with the promise of safety. They demand we submit to full body scans that would make a doctor blush, all with the promise that our air travel will be free of terrorist attacks.

The TSA has been extremely lucky in the fact that recent Muslim terrorists such as shoe bomber Richard Reid and underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab have been too inept to successfully carry out their planned attacks. The recent toner cartridge bomb plot originating from Yemen and sponsored by radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki's al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, was much more dangerous and came within 17 minutes of succeeding. The TSA failed to detect any of these plots, and the toner cartridge plot was revealed by an insider tip passed on by Saudi Arabian intelligence.

The TSA has utterly failed to protect air travelers in the U.S. as evidenced by their numerous warnings of terrorist dry runs, but continues to subject us to increasing harassment. The full body scan is starting to look like a bridge too far as travelers are starting to push back. We, the flying public, don't feel safe, don't appreciate the intrusions, and don't think either the TSA or Janet Napolitano has a clue.

Some argue that no intrusion is too great if it keeps terrorists at bay. I disagree. The Israeli airline El Al has successfully averted terrorist attacks for several years through impeccable training, state-of-the-art technology, and common sense techniques such as passenger profiling. All this has been accomplished without needless harassment of its passengers.

The time to implement common sense security measures is long overdue. A needless tragedy for the sake of political correctness is too high a price to pay. If we trade our freedoms for the illusion of security, we will be no better off than if we submit to the very Muslim subjugation against which we are currently resisting.

Tom Roberson is an independent conservative holding finance and engineering degrees doing his small part to save his country. He'd love to hear from you.