Dear Hillary: In Israel You Would Be Dead

So, Hillary Clinton's roaming caravan ran down a security guard. This really is minor news on one level. The temptation is to go "So?" But the important point is that in any aware and truly prepared society, we would be out one junior senator from New York and up one recipient of the Darwin Award.

The vehicles were headed towards aircraft and in an area where there were congregations of people. The security guard did not have positive ID of the persons inside and they had just run through a road block. In Israel, the two guards at the checkpoint would have pointed their loaded Uzis and filled the vehicles with bullets then gone up to arrest the survivors while the bomb squad looked for the bombs.

In 1985 my unit was assigned to the Sinai as part of the Multinational Force Observers. A guy blew out his lung SCUBA diving and to get him to a hospital fast enough that he'd live the helicopter evac, flown by a Vietnam era chief warrant officer, dropped down to ten feet off the waves and firewalled it for Israel.

Israeli air defenses were within a hairs-breadth of blowing the Huey into the drink, despite the great big MFO patch on one side and the cross on the other and the pilot on the correct frequency. Why? Because the helicopter could just as well have been packed with explosives. Fortunately the air-defense guys got the orders to stand down instead of shoot down.

The reason that the Israelis do this is not that they are particularly bloodthirsty. It is because they have learned, through grievous and repeated occurrences, that in fighting terrorism it's vital to shoot first. You usually only get one shot. And then the plane takes off or the truck-bomb explodes. There's a reason that everywhere you go in the Middle East and Europe, there are guys carrying assault rifles and sub-machineguns. It's called "stopping power."

We're not there yet. We still have unarmed Barneys at the gates and soldiers and airmen standing "guard" with their weapons empty and the magazine wells taped over. Just the way we were in Beirut in 1983 with the Marine guard fumbling to get his magazine seated. But in 1983, the guys in Lebanon who had been there and done that and knew what they were doing, the Irish among others, had rocket launchers at their checkpoints. And they used them at the slightest hint of danger. Then they asked why somebody had just joined the Darwin Awards List. They often didn't get much of an answer. But they were alive to ask.

Note to the Secret Service: Don't blow any checkpoints in Israel.

On another note:

The Congress should stay in session.

Senator Daschle has received some really killer anthrax and some of his staffers have shown signs of exposure. But, despite this, it is imperative that Congress keep to it's regular business. Maybe at a higher security facility, at least while the Capitol gets fumigated. (There's a joke there, but I'm not going to use it.) What they should not do is run back to their districts as if they had their tails between their legs. This will be perceived internationally as weakness at a time when we need to be seen as strong.

Furthermore, it's lousy leadership. We're asking our workers to go back into high buildings and our pilots to fly and our media to chin up in the face of the anthrax threat, the least that Congress can do is the same.

Admittedly they are a prime target and the Capitol was never designed for security. I'm not saying that they should just set themselves up as sitting ducks. Put them somewhere secure. Fortunately, there's a perfect facility for it, it's called Greenbrier.

During the Cold War, the Greenbrier Resort had a secret facility under it, specifically to accept the Congress in the event of Nuclear War. This has since been turned back over to the resort and is now a tourist attraction. But I'm sure that the facilities could be ramped up for a couple of week's stay. While they wouldn't be able to have their entire staff there, I'm sure they could get some modicum of work done. And it would send a message to the American people that their representatives were willing to stand up to the threat. Albeit in a bunker. Just like Osama.

As opposed to, say, sending a message to the world, again, that we're running away with our tail between our knees. I think three times was enough.