Lesson #287: Don't claim to have a bomb.

Yesterday a crazy man on a plane in Miami claimed to have a bomb and ended up shot dead by an Air Marshall. When I caught wind of this in the evening I knew I was about to witness a micro version of the conflict with terrorism, Iraq and Saddam unfold before me.

Both situation start with a mad man claiming to have a bomb. Both situations where ended with pre-emptive strikes. And already, within less than 24 hours, the Chicken Littles in our nation, who have been going so far as to say Saddam should be put back in power of late, are claiming that the Air Marshall “acted in haste” because as it turns out there was no bomb.

A man, on a plane, acting strange, with a companion that is also acting funny, the man claims to have a bomb in his bag, he refuses to be subdued and refuses to put down the bag within which he claims to have a bomb. The man then reaches into the bag.

What do you do, Mr. Air Marshall?

In one regard it doesn’t matter what you do as the Chicken Littles will attack whatever decision you make as improper. Shoot and no bomb and you are a trigger happy goon so should have shown more restraint. Don’t shoot and there’s no bomb and they’ll want you fired because you weren’t willing to take action to defend the lives of the passengers. Shoot and there is a bomb and you’ll be lambasted for being so asleep at the wheel that you let this person on the plane in the first place. Don’t shoot and there is a bomb and you and many innocent passengers are dead.

You don’t really have a choice, you have to shoot, but for the Chicken Littles out their the blame is on you – not the man with the bomb, it’s your fault for not having the compassion and understanding for a unfortunate victim of a mental disorder – not of the man who stopped taking his medication.

This fits in perfectly with the cry of the Chicken Littles, (Dean, Murtha, Kerry, Polosi, et. al) over Iraq. In 2003 they demanded a second act from Congress to authorize the war so they could all show how they were willing to standup to a murderous thug hiding WMDs. But then once it turned out that we haven’t found a nice big warehouse with a sign reading “WMD Storage Facility” they are now crying foul. Crying they were lied to, tricked by the trigger happy Bush into going along with attacking an innocent victim of US aggression.

However, like Mr. Air Marshall, Mr. President has to make a decision – based upon the information at hand (backed up by intelligence information from countries from Russia to Canada) on upon his decision the lives a many hang in the balance. The mad man on the plane and the mad man in Baghdad both were asking for it by feigning the ability and willingness to kill masses of others.

Chicken Littles are afraid of everything and they wish nothing more than instilling their fear into the rest of us but the only thing I’m afraid of this the possibility that people in positions of making theses hard decisions may become infected.