I’m convinced that Oakland Airport, and not the TSA, was responsible for the disgusting treatment of a Marine battalion en route from Iraq to Hawaii. For those who haven’t followed the story, instead of being permitted into the terminal–as they had in Frankfurt and New York–the Marines were forced to make do with cramped quarters, very limited toilet facilities and telephones, and were not permitted to meet family members who had gone to the airport, foolishly believing that soldiers would be given polite treatment.
Michelle Malkin has done her usual excellent work, and I think the best roundup comes from Herschel Smith. The bottom line is that somebody in the airport authority made the decision. And that sounds right to me, since there are other airports–sadly including BWI, one of Washington D.C.’s three airports–which similarly maltreat military charters, while there are many others that properly roll out the red carpet. Dallas, Texas and Bangor, Maine, are clearly in the running for the troops’ favorites.
This is also another black eye for the Department of Defense, which should have fixed this disgrace long since, and for the Dead Tree Media, which never showed any interest in it until it broke online. But I suppose it was much more important to parse Rush Limbaugh’s syntax, and the crucial issue of the number of gays in the Islamic Republic of Iran…