OK. I was willing to give the French the benefit of the doubt. But reading about their insanely deferential treatment of Richard Reid, I’m starting to think a declaration of war shouldn’t be out of the question.

He was actually stopped and interrogated the day before, because of his strange attitude and behavior. They never searched him, and didn’t notice the detonator cord sticking out of his shoes.

When this caused him to miss the flight, French authorities paid 2000 francs (about $267) for him to stay the night in a four star hotel. Other hotel guests heard him praying in his room that night. He probably thought it was a little taste of the heaven he was headed for, another sign from Allah that he was being a good little Islamic Jihad warrior, a divine treat before his nightmare mission, no doubt with a little chocolate mint on the 300-thread-count pillowcase.

Then, the next day, they let him walk his bombs right onto a plane.

But to be fair to the French (much as it galls me, no pun intended), it could well have happened in the US too. I heard a soundbite from Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta on the radio a few days ago, in which he said that if there were a 70-year old woman from Indiana and a group of praying Islamic men waiting to board a flight, he “would hope” there would be no difference in how they were treated. Amazing.

I’m very afraid it will take an atrocity like the one that almost happened on Flight 63 before the people who are supposed to guard our security realize that blind adherence to the forms of civilized decorum is suicide, when faced with ruthless killers who know how to exploit those forms.

Call it profiling if you want. But if a plane goes down because simple common sense wasn’t used, people like Norm Mineta will be partly responsible.