Securing the Washington Monument from terrorism has turned out to be a surprisingly difficult job. The concrete fence around the building protects it from attacking vehicles, but there’s no visually appealing way to house the airport-level security mechanisms the National Park Service has decided are a must for visitors. It is considering several options, but I think we should close the monument entirely. Let it stand, empty and inaccessible, as a monument to our fears.

Bruce Schneier absolutely nails it in Close the Washington Monument.

Count me among those who are not impressed with the avalanche of self-congratulation that we’re seeing in response to the arrest of a would-be terrorist who attempted to execute a plan created for him by the FBI. Glenn Greenwald weighs in with a note of skepticism about the whole sad affair. Perhaps I’m a bleeding heart liberal, but it’s hard for me believe that the most worthy action for the government when it discovers a teenager who may be sympathetic to terrorists is to put him up in his own apartment and induce him to attempt to commit an act of terrorism so that he can be arrested.

Here’s a non-comprehensive list of things innocent people have suffered in order to prevent terrorist attacks on America:

• Monitored them on closed circuit television.
• Asked them to present photo ID at the airport.
• Required them to walk through a metal detector in order to go to the gate.
• Required them to empty their pockets.
• Required them to take their laptop out of its bag.
• Required them to remove their shoes to go through security.
• Prevented them from carrying more than a small amount of liquids past security.
• Required them to put all containers containing liquids in a clear plastic bag.
• Required them to have their carry on luggage hand-inspected by security.
• Required them to put their checked luggage through an explosives detector.
• Monitored their phone calls.
• Monitored their Internet activity.
• Subjected them to minimally invasive patdowns at security.
• Forced them to walk through a backscatter X-ray scanner that shows their naughty bits to someone in another room.
• Subjected them to invasive and humiliating patdowns.
• Placed them on a no fly list for unknown reasons.
• Kicked them off an airplane for looking suspicious.
• Prevented them from flying because of their religion or ethnicity.
• Roped them into terrorist plots using paid informants and then arrested them for being terrorists.
• Tortured them using sleep deprivation, sensory deprivation, sexual humiliation, and extreme temperatures.
• Subjected them to waterboarding.
• Turned them over to governments of countries like Egypt and Syria in order to be tortured.
• Beaten them to death.
• Shot them.
• Shot and killed them.
• Blew them up using laser-guided bombs.
• Killed them in Predator drone strikes.

Seems odd to me that some people are so much more offended by a couple of items on this list than they are by all the rest.