Fewer Shooting and More Bombing

Sometimes you really have to wonder how people can make such bad decisions. The week before the start of the NFL season, San Diego linebacker Steve Foley was shot 3 times by an off-duty police officer that suspected him of driving under the influence. Apparently Foley’s vehicle was observed weaving in and out of traffic at high speed by the officer who proceeded to follow it and tried to get Foley to pull over. When Foley finally did pull over near his house, the officer shot him.

So why is an off-duty police officer trying to arrest someone? What was this guy thinking? In this day and age who is going to pull over for someone dressed in everyday clothes just because he claims to be a police officer? The officer should have called the vehicle license plate in and ended his involvement at that point. Real life isn’t a movie. Cops aren’t on duty 24 / 7 and this one had no more responsibility in the matter than you or I. Now he’s suspended and Foley is out of work for the year.

Today reports “leaked” out that the U.S. military passed up an opportunity to blow up more than 100 Taliban fighters because they were at a funeral and bombing a cemetery would violate the rules of engagement. It seems like there are all sorts of bad decisions being made here. The first error in judgment seems to be on the part of the Taliban mourners. Funeral or no funeral, congregating out in the open in such large numbers does not indicate a very high group intelligence if you ask me. Now that the photograph has been released and publicized you can bet they won’t be doing that again, which leads to the next poor decision. Who’s the moron who gave the picture to a journalist? What good could possibly come from that? Gee, let’s show the world that we can take pictures of the Taliban fighters any time they come out of their caves. That won’t cause them to change their tactics and become more difficult to exterminate will it?

The final poor decision was the decision by the military not to bomb the gathering. I understand wanting to be sensitive to those who are grieving for the loss of friends and comrades in arms, but these people are the enemy. They are not a military organization that follows the Geneva Convention. They are guerrilla fighters employing tactics that standard armies including our own are ill equipped to deal with. An opportunity like this one should never have been passed up. If our military was worried about bad press if they bombed the bad guys, then they could have just kept quiet about it. It’s simple, blow up the bad guys at the funeral and just don’t tell anyone. It’s kind of like the Army’s policy about homosexuals, don’t ask, and don’t tell. Don’t ask for permission to blow up the bad guys at a cemetery and don’t tell anyone they were at a funeral.

Everyone makes bad decisions from time to time, but when your job requires a significant degree of judgment, you should be able to manage a little common sense. Picking the Packers over the Bears last weekend was a bad decision. Having to shoot someone because you thought they should take your word for it when you claimed to be a police officer is grossly negligent. Letting a hundred terrorists walk back to their caves and continue plotting our demise is suicidal.

Date Added: 13-09-2006