Fast and Furious
Fast and Furious
This ill-conceived bit if foolishness was supposed to allow BAT-men to ‘follow’ guns sold through straw purchasers to the drug runners who were the end users. Normal gun shop procedures would have prevented many of these guns from ever having left the US, but, at the instance of the BATFE, gun store owners allowed these obvious straw-man purchases to proceed. The end result is all too clear. US imported and US made firearms ended up being used by Mexican drug runners in criminal operations, on both sides of the border.
Right now, Rep. Issa and his committee has been trying for a year to figure out how this could have happened, and who was responsible for authorizing this poorly conceived operation. He’s been stonewalled. For a year. No matter what you think of the people involved, it seems to me that an answer to that question is owed to the family of Brian Terry. Today, with a vote of contempt scheduled on Holder, Obama’s white house has injected itself into the proceedings with some sort of executive order, protecting the documents that Issa has been asking for.
All this seems pointless to me.
Since Sun Tzu wrote ‘Art of War’ in the 16th century, it’s been accepted that the commanding officer is responsible for actions of his subordinates. Kings 1:21 tells us the same, with Ahab being held responsible for killing Naboth… even though he didn’t know about it. Rome had similar views on command responsibility, including codifying that responsibility to include non-military leaders. International law holds that ”Military commanders and other persons occupying positions of superior authority may be held criminally responsible for the unlawful conduct of their subordinates.” As President Truman might have said, the ‘buck’ stops with Holder.
I don’t really care what Holder knew about fast and furious, or when he knew it. It happened under his watch. It’s not like I’m expecting Holder to take responsibility for some idiot abusing his power on his own, this was a recognized, funded operation of the BATFE, and is Holder’s responsibility… period.
Contempt? Yeah, I think that’s appropriate. Unemployed would be another term I’d like to see applied to Holder. Luckily, no matter what Issa ends up getting done, you and I have the opportunity to insure that outcome, at the ballot box. If Holder doesn’t want to accept responsibility for the actions of his subordinates, we can at least hold his boss accountable, and toss him to the curb.