U.S. Recon Plane Joins Hunt For Sniper

MSNBC ^

[dagnabit]

Who was the dummy on TV that said how safe it was inside malls and other enclosed areas...isn't that just challenging the sniper to do his evil deed in a different venue? Why aren't these kooks screened first for what they plan to talk about?

[SauronOfMordor]

Since the shootings started close into Washington and have since generally moved away, I would say that the perp is avoiding the areas where security has been tightened.

Or perhaps he started near DC to get their attention, will move away from DC to draw away resources, then hit DC itself

[Magnum44]

Thank you for the explaination. I see your concerns.

I personally don't think it is easy to make judgement until all the facts are known. They may appear to be bumblers now, they may be playing some brilliant plan (I agree it does not look like it). I think there is justified reluctance to involve the military, as well as justified use in the appropriate role. I think that to make the charge of terrorism early in this case is risky because if it does turn out to be a psycho-nut case, or worse a "right wing gun nut", the press would use the incorrect charge as a way to divert the war on terrorism and accuse the administration of abuse of power, illegal use of military forces, coddling criminal gun owners, etc.

Hopefully, they nab this guy soon, and he gets his justice, we get answers, and if incompetent cops made bad decisions, they get made examples of.

Regards,

[Polybius]

You may deserve the kind of government you're asking for, but the rest of us don't.......D.P.Roberts

"Americans are dying in the Washington, D.C, area" ...... Nine Americans in two weeks...... In the same time period, probably at least twice that number of Americans have died in drive-bys.....BiffSchneider

Maybe, as a Naval Medical Officer who on many occassions has dealt with civilians, both Americans and foreigners, in life threatening emergencies while on active duty, I don't have an overly developed sense of paranoia that Western Civilization will come crashing down around us if I help a fellow American citizen while wearing a U.S. Navy uniform.

Those dreaded spy planes are flying over Washington, D.C. right now.

Civilian law enforcement officers are onboard to ensure that a military pilot and a few military computer geeks do not manage to take over control of the entire United States of America from several thousand feet in the air.

As I look out the window, no tanks are rolling in the streets. No Army General is on TV announcing a coup de etat.

Nine dead Americans from a single metropolitan community in the first two weeks then maybe another nine the two weeks after that and the two weeks after that and the two weeks after that.....

But, who cares. Especially when you live someplace else and it's somebody else's wife that gets a round through her left ventricle while filling up the family car at the gas station or it is someone else's 13 year old boy that get's dropped with one shot while walking to school.

Who cares. It's not your community. If it doesn't affect you, dead Americans are merely numbers.

Since America can't launch a massive man-hunt for every single drive by shooting in every town, in every state from the Atlantic to the Pacific, then America should not use it's available resource to stop one mass murdering terrorist in a single small geographic area. Somehow, the logic of that argument falls short.

Our Constitutionally elected leaders have decided that adequate safeguards have been established so that the military pilot pilot now flying over Washinton, D.C. and his military black box operators do not single-handedly take over the U.S. Government.

I'll side with what I believe is the common sense approach of our Constitutionally elected leaders to save another 9, 18 or 27 American lives from being taken by those terrorist in the next several weeks instead of giving in to The-Sky-Is-Falling, The-Constitution-Is-Dead, The-Black-Helicopters-Have-Come-To-Enslave-Us paranoia.

[JHrules]

"I'll side with what I believe is the common sense approach of our Constitutionally elected leaders to save another 9, 18 or 27 American lives from being taken by those terrorist in the next several weeks instead of giving in to The-Sky-Is-Falling, The-Constitution-Is-Dead, The-Black-Helicopters-Have-Come-To-Enslave-Us paranoia."

Can I assume that as with the rest of your article you are being sarcastic here? I beleive 100% in our countries military and I trust the local police with the welfare of my children, but I own home defense weapons and I am a cautious parent. I am tired of watching this countries rights be slowly erased by our "constitutionally elected" leaders (wrong by the way, research how the original constitution and election law was written). I think the main concern with the people reponding here is not the fact that the government is invovled in this case, it's that they are just more bodies in a cramped office putting more paper through the lines and may not help. I DO agree that this sniper is in our capital and needs to be handled as a terrorist. I think our FBI should be involved as he has crossed state lines. I think the National guard, NOT the military should be after this guy, after all isn't that what we created the National guard for???

[D.P.Roberts]

Baby/Bathwater: Learn the difference.

D.P.Roberts