🚀 go-pugleaf

Carey Gregory wrote:

> You have to protect high priority targets, and government leaders are
> always high priority.

We've a well defined order of succession precisely for this reason: to avoid
having high priority targets.  It's not like a dictatorship where capturing
or killing the dictator brings down the government.

Yes, there's PR value is killing a government leader, even of a democracy. 
It's not the safest job in the world.  Neither is being a police officer, a
soldier, etc.  Some people are willing to volunteer for these jobs; others
not.

It's even appropriate for those taking these jobs to be interested in
minimizing that risk.  But at what cost?  How many extra soldiers (or
protected vehicles) (or police officers) (or milk inspectors) (...) would
be bought with the total cost of the ADIZ?  When is it right for a leader
to say "the safety of those people serving our country is more important
than my own personal safety"?

And this isn't even really about safety.  We could make the President safe
by keeping him in a hole somewhere.  No worries.  But his freedom of
movement is more important than all those alternative ways to spend that
money, and more important than the freedom of movement of the pilots in the
DC area?

> If I were the secret service, I would be extremely nervous about Cessnas
> droning overhead knowing any one of them could be loaded with explosives,
> shoulder-launched missiles, or even a small nuke.

If the secret service spends more time on this than on the possibility of a
large nuke in a truck, then they're fools.  Building a fission weapon isn't
all that tough.  Building a *small* fission weapon - one that can be
carried in a small airplane, launched on a missile, etc. - is the more
difficult problem.

So if we're considering a nuclear weapon, we're far more likely to see a
large "home grown" (or "Made in Korea") device than something small enough
to fit into a small airplane.

Similar logic holds for just about every other type of weapon.

> I'd say that
> scenario would eventually lead to some poor bastard getting his ass blown
> out of the sky by a nervous SS agent with a Stinger.

I hope not, but it's certainly a possibility.  And the fallout from that
would be interesting to say the least.  If people are hurt or killed by
falling debris (or the first couple of missiles that miss), then we'll have
an excuse to bring our priorities back to sanity.  Unfortunately, it'll be
too late for the victims.

Or is a leader's freedom of movement more important than the population of
DC?

 - Andrew