"The terrorists have won if [something silly happens in America]"
Not really.
It is political and military pressure on certain countries with high birth rates and weak economies that radicalizes young men - lift the foot from their neck and see them be as indifferent/slightly dismissive towards our lifestyle/religion like we are to theirs.
Airport/aircraft security seems to be part of a trend of law enforcement in the US: harsh punishments for minor crimes, "tough on crime", zero tolerance etc.
Perhaps it wasn't their aim; but it's certainly a victory: they caused society to start punishing itself in some quixotic overreaction.
The billions of travellers since the attacks are now constantly nervous - not of an attack anymore because the odds of that are so vanishingly small you don't seriously consider it - but of saying or doing something that some over-eager security policy has irrationally branded dangerous. It's like passing a pack of dangerous animals: you never know what's going to set em off, but whatever you do don't draw attention.
So yeah, they have won. It's not hypothetical; it's a fact of everyday travelling life.
The terrorists have won a great victory if acting slightly odd is enough to terrify an airline company into kicking a passenger off a plane.
This isn't about terrorism. It's about a flight attendant taking exception to a passenger, and owing to what he later said and how he behaved, believing that he could develop into a problem on a long-haul flight.
Was it a good call? Probably not, given the author's flight history. It is, however, an understandable one, especially given how little it takes for one person to cause havoc on a flight, especially when it's long-haul.
If flight attendants got everybody that they didn't like kicked off flights, it would seem[1] that there would be barely anyone flying.
If I pay for a service and it isn't delivered there better be a damn good reason. A lie about me doing something that I wasn't or me stating that I am not a terrorist are not good reasons.
If flight attendants got everybody that they didn't like kicked off flights, it would seem[1] that there would be barely anyone flying.
Speak for yourself. But this is neither here nor there, as you well know. The issue is: have you announced your likelihood to become a problem later in the flight? If so, why should you remain?
I think in this case it was a harsh call, but ultimately an understandable one. Heck, who's to say the same flight crew hadn't earlier had to deal with an undeniably genuine problem passenger, and hence were being over-cautious? We're all human.
While my assumptions and biases make me see this differently -- that is, having a bad day is human, but so is being abusive with authority -- I disagree even more with the fact that you got modded down for this, so have an upvote to offset that. None of us know for sure what was going on in that plane and in the heads of the involved people, that's a fact.
You mean the "havoc" of taking pictures onboard? In violation of a policy that should have been criminal to draft in the first place? Such terrible havoc that will annoy... no one. Not even the FA if she just ignores it.
Not even odd, slightly odd which is now apparently grounds for getting kicked off an airliner.
The terrorists have won a great victory if acting slightly odd is enough to terrify an airline company into kicking a passenger off a plane.