Compassionate, Conservative Urban Renewal?

I saw an interesting story in USA Today the other day (March 23, 2007) that told us the Homeland Security Department was looking at using the Predator drone to protect U.S. airports. Well, on the surface that sounds pretty good!

There have already been cases where nut cases have tried to use shoulder-fired Stingers to shoot down commercial airliners as they take off. They even left the launch tubes behind in their rush to get away.

But one paragraph raised my eyebrows:

"The drones, to be tested over the Patuxent River Naval Air Station outside Washington, would be outfitted with missile-warning systems and possibly anti-missile lasers that could send plane-bound missiles off course, says Kerry Wilson, a deputy administrator of Homeland Security's anti-missile program."

Whoa! Hold on there!

So we make this missile veer off-course. That means it's going to hit - and explode - somewhere else, probably near the airports, most of which are built around lower-income neighborhoods ... and probably kill more people than if they'd hit the plane itself.

I guess this is just another clever bureaucratic program to enforce population reduction and urban renewal. Then we can built more shopping malls without having to go to court to condemn the property by "eminent domain."

I've worked with Homeland Security/FEMA at the local-county levels and I've seen some dumb ideas, but this one is a REAL dumb idea!