Hi all,
This may sound cold, but with the death of Arafat, perhaps some good will come out of this. No doubt there will be a shake up in their 'government' but sometimes these things work out.
Keep in mind, Iraq and most of the mid east works like neighboring crime familes. They take care of their own. Split along tribal, familiy, and religous lines.
Imagine a crime family with the abilities of a nation state, and that's what Saddam was, and now the late Arafat.
After having lived in the mid east for a year, and been witness to just what kind of violence some elements of radical Islam are capable of, I see this as no great loss.
(moderate Islam is just good people trying to live in peace, I have no issue with them, cool dudes)
Now there is a slim chance that sanity will break out, and perhaps someone will take charge there and start making sense. Could there be an end to this back and forth outrage we see each week.
Isreal has it right. Good fences make good neighbors.
Here is an unhappy thought you should share with the guys at work.
What if the tatics we see here get adapted to your part of the world.
Imagine just how tough your job will get if some drug dealing bozo gang takes out a rival gang with a trash can filled with AMFO?
And the block around them?
How long before our own little terror clubs start using these tatics.
What if one of these idiots get's good with a rifle, and starts wacking guys three long blocks away?
What if they learn to shut up rather than sing or brag to their friends. Your CI's would be of zero value.
I don't have to tell you about the number of crazy people who live in in New York. (I was a Long Island resident for 36 years)
How many times has some mutt been arrested. A family member get's bent and six cops at the front desk of the preicent have to detain the relative trying to rewrite history?
What happens if some unhappy relative learns how to make a car bomb off the internet? Instead of a toyota packed with nailes, it's a van.
Or some annoyed tech type wants to make the city of New York pay for some precived crime. You have had them in the past. That bozo with the gas on the subway, who torched himself and a few others. The guy with the bomb in the locker at Grand Centeral (was that ever solved?) in the 50's. Heck, look at how much trouble there was in the centeral park wilding case, or Berkowitz caused. Heck look up Elenor Bumpers fatal act of stupidity and it's side effects.
Look, I get concerned each time I hear of a trooper catching a splinter. It's the same when an officer is hurt. You put on the uniform, your one of the good guys. Keep your self safe, and the rest of us too.
Thanks in advance
Jack Crow in Iraq