by Douglas DeBono, 2006

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT StandingOrders.BlogSpot.Com, July 25, 2005

The second-guessers are out in droves. Regrettably, a British security officer shot the wrong guy--five bullets in the head.

It turns out the victim was from Brazil. Perhaps, he did not speak English or he made a habit of running from the cops. Regardless, the cops thought he had a bomb in his backpack, and they stopped him when he didn't stop.

Wars are messy affairs. The wrong people get killed. There are no perfect solutions. I am quite sure the trigger-puller is somewhat devastated at killing the wrong person. However, people would be hailing him a hero if the backpack contained batteries wired to detonators wrapped about a C4 stick.

Nothing good comes from needlessly poking at the peole trying to keep us safe. Let them do their job, and give them some slack when things go wrong. After all, the bad guys aren't playing by the same rules--they just want to kill everybody.