When U.S soldiers with nail clippers and flight attendants who've survived breast cancer are treated as potential terrorists, you know the TSA is "acting stupidly." Yet the administration thinks everything is fine.

Imagine the department of motor vehicles with cattle prods, and you're close to the mentality exhibited by Transportation Safety Administration chief John Pistole on CNN's "State of the Union" show Sunday. He told host Candy Crowley that what the Israelis have "is top-notch security," but the U.S. won't use these techniques because America does not profile.

Excuse us? The U.S. won't use what the world's No. 1 terrorist target has shown to be effective because it's allegedly discriminatory, but is willing to strip-search grandmas and little children at random? This is cruelty and inefficiency raised to a science.

We are trying terrorists in civilian courts because we're trying to show the world our system of justice protects everybody's rights. Yet as a TSA thug told John Tyner, the young man who thought touching his "junk" was unreasonable: "By buying your ticket, you gave up a lot of rights." If we've surrendered this and other rights, just what are we fighting to protect in the war on terror?

Mr. President, this is more than an inconvenience. This is barbaric, inhumane, unnecessary and arguably unconstitutional. It's a sad day when Khalid Sheik Mohammed has a greater presumption of innocence than American soldiers and the civilians they fight and die to protect.