How Long Should We Wait?

This is a tough world with hard decisions that need to be faced and made. We are caught in a balancing act between “innocent till proven guilty” and “acting before many suffer”. This contrast plays out quite simply when a cop faces a man with a gun. If the man fails to follow instructions to put down the weapon the cop is faced with this question. Is the man simply confused and wishing to protect himself, or is he determined to do harm to others? Should the cop wait for the results or act on the threat? Would a liberal court blame the death of the man on the cop? After all just because you arrive in a police car wearing a police uniform and shout, “It’s the police! Put down your weapon!” doesn’t mean that you have firmly established your credibility to the now dead man.
We have police and military operating today with a direct fear of facing substantial penalty for simply doing their job the best they can in the situation played out for them. This confusing upside down world has made a mockery of self protection and the use of force. We have troops in the field who are told they can only fire if fired upon. That means every morning they have to look their brethren in the eye and know that one of them has to die or become severely wounded before they can take action. This is the reality of the politics controlling the war.
We at home are still functioning under the country club mentality of it being someone else’s problem. We do very little to get behind the troops and throw our full selves into beating the enemy. Our leaders are still treating the War On Terror like a Sunday football game. Would someone point out to these idiots that some of our boys won’t rise off the field and play another day?
The scary part is our enemy has figured this out. All they have to do is snap a few well staged pictures and we start falling back. We become so busy stabbing ourselves in the back, they can plan a big one or simply sit back and watch the show. America is starting to resemble the puppet. Our strings are showing big time and the enemy is figuring out how to manipulate them.
Before the Israel/Hezbollah war the world’s attention was on Iran. Iran reached out pulled a couple of strings, and fell off the scope. We lost complete site of the 600 pound gorilla in the room. The cease fire is bad for Israel and bad for Iran. They lost their distraction from their nuclear ambitions. I hope someone at the Pentagon kept their eye on the ball. I have no love of war and a great love for this country, but failing to stop what Iran will soon do will cost us all dearly.

So the question is: Do we wait for proof or act? If we wait, how many deaths will it take to bring action? A backpack of a biologic dumped out on a roof park in NYC could kill tens of thousands. A nuclear bomb would kill millions. How long do we wait? What if the sacrificial lamb was Your Town USA?