The Likelihood.
“Any and all bomb threats are regarded as real by all government agencies.”
“The AMBER Plan was created in 1996 as a powerful legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, a bright little girl who was kidnapped and brutally murdered while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas. The tragedy shocked and outraged the entire community. Residents contacted radio stations in the Dallas area and suggested they broadcast special “alerts” over the airwaves so that they could help prevent such incidents in the future.”
“A threat to assassinate the president can be punished to the same extent of the law as an actual attempt”
Why is it that so many complain about the United States not finding stockpiles of WMD’s in Iraq, but at the same time if a bomb threat were called in to their children’s school and an evacuation was not ordered they would be a bit upset? I know I was. My son’s school had a bomb threat about a year ago and the principal was fired due to not evacuating the school. The school had been getting an average of two threats a week and I guess the principal finally got fed up. In the post 9/11 world we live in now I do not care if the school were getting threats everyday, they should have evacuated. If you have a small child that becomes missing at the mall for whatever reason and you cannot find them immediately due you just wait for them to show up, or do you ask for help? Obviously most parents would seek help as soon possible. If the secret service got a direct threat of an assassination attempt would they change any of their daily routines? I think they would.
It is amazing to me how so many people can react to the smallest chance of something bad happening, yet wonder why we went to war with Iraq over WMD’s. Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraqi Survey Group stated that the likelihood of finding stockpiles of illegal weapons was less than 5%. This makes me wonder. If we were alerted that there was a 4% chance of a school being blown up on a certain date would we send our kids to school that day? I wouldn’t. Granted the odds are in your favor, but does anyone really want to play those odds? The threat of WMD’s was there. The games Saddam was playing with the inspectors led me to believe that he was either hiding something or just simply playing games with the world. I have stated before that personally I saw many reasons to remove him for power and WMD’s was not at the top of my list. So many people however are complaining that it was the reason given for going to war so that is why I wanted to comment on it. The likelihood that you will get struck by lightning during an electrical storm is remote, but do most of us when we are outside and hear the crack of thunder run inside or just stand there? If we can react so serious to a bomb threat that may kill a few hundred people, why should we sit and wait when there is a possible chance a many great more could die due to some dictators whims?
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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton