Once again you - like others - are confusing the two aspects of this event. I am commenting on the SECURITY questions once again. My comment about the terrorists winning is in a feeling that we shouldn't do something that has been done since photography was invented - a photo op. Someone once said that the best way of beating the enemy is to show them that we continue to live our lives in the same we we always have and that their actions have not changed our way of life.

People keep wanting to focus on the money spent. That fuel is budgeted folks. It isn't adding to the cost. The money is already there. If whichever office runs that program decides to spend its' fuel on that particular event then it isn't going to change anything. If you want to talk about money wasted - take a look at the footprint of a President when he travels period (this is non-polictical btw - I'm talking about the travel footprint of ANY President)

I don't know WHY they did this photo op. I don't know if it is for a FAA video or a postcard; but it is a sad day when two icons of our country's power end up scaring the dickens out of the population.

Now - back to my original assersion that telling the mass public of the event would not have been a good security decision - regardless whether the event itself was well conceived.

USMCFLYR