By now, we’ve all heard the story of how Dick Cheney issued the order to shoot down hijacked jets on September 11. A harrowing thing to have to do, but given the circumstances, probably the only course of action available.
Now, here are my questions.
First, does the Vice President have the authority to give this order? As far as I know, the Vice President has no authority whatsoever other than to cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate.
Second, has anyone really thought about how different things would have been had the planes been shot down? Imagine, for a moment, if the jet flying toward the Pentagon had been shot down over, say, my neighborhood in Arlington, a mile or so short of it’s target. Has anyone sat down and figured out of the death toll from such an event would be higher or lower than what actually resulted on the day? What if the planes over New York had been shot down over that densely populated area?
Just wondering, that’s all.
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