Top Dog

As I was sitting in the Vietnamese restaurant reading the New York Times on my iPhone, I read some interesting articles that got me thinking.

You probably recall the Fort Hood shooting involving Major Nidal Hasan. He suddenly decided to kill his comrades. Similar to this act of murder, several soldiers have been reported to kill and sometimes even rape Iraqi citizens that they capture or come across. When outrageous acts such as these are committed by U.S. soldiers, who is to blame?

Does one blame the soldier, himself, or does one blame the general in charge of the Platoon or etc.? Is it the lack of discipline/sense of responsibility of the soldier that sporadically urges him to go against his fellow soldiers or to kill innocent people in a foreign, war-torn country? The article I was reading claimed that many are questioning not the integrity of the soldiers, but the capability of commanding officials to train soldiers and instill necessary discipline. I, for one, think that the soldiers are to blame, not the commanding officer. If you do the crime, do the time, take the blame, don't complain. Wow, that almost rhymed.


Another interesting incident is the TSA officials requiring a four year old boy with delayed development (having been born 16 weeks prematurely) to remove his leg braces, when it was clear he could not comfortably walk, if at all, through the security check point at the airport. Yes, we are all quite paranoid about terrorists at this point in time, and looking at my other blog posts, one can make the conclusion that I'm clearly anti-terrorist and have no sympathy for them. However, if it's a handicapped child, you can go swab him and check for chemicals. There are other ways to handle the situation. You don't make the poor kid take off his only means of support and walk all by himself - he doesn't even have fully developed ankles. I can understand why the parents are so upset, I would be too if the airport officials had done this kind of thing to someone my sister's age.

We should definitely be on high alert and look out for terrorists, but let's not get so paranoid and start abusing little kids. Thanks airport people.
Another reason to hate security checks at airports, besides the ridiculously long lines and rude people who work there.