Maybe the secret service did exactly the right thing.
Tuesday Dec 16, 2008
Listening to the radio last night, the only topic of discussion was the failure of the secret service to protect President Bush from two shoes thrown my an Iraqi "journalist". The radio hosts seemed to think that the fact that the man was able to throw the shoes without the secret service either shooting him dead or jumping in front of the shoes to prevent the President from being hit and then instantly piling on top of the man, all represented either gross incompetence on the part of the secret service or an indication that its attitude towards the President had changed.
I have a different interpretation. How about the possibility that they acted in exactly the appropriate manner by refraining to use deadly force when deadly force was not called for. Put yourself in the place of an agent on the scene. By virtue of the layout of the press room, you cannot be between the President and the journalists, the best you can do is be in between the President and the journalists and to the side. The man throws the first shoe, what do you do? You might be able to jump in front of the shoe, but why? It's a shoe! Now the man starts the throw the second shoe. The only long range option you have is to shot him, probably injuring bystanders, but again, why? Its a shoe!
I applaud the secret service for doing what they needed to do in the fashion they needed to do it. Good work!
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