Dan Rather: Hired Gun
Some people wondered that when CBS news anchor Dan Rather went to Iraq to interview then President of Iraq Saddam Hussein, why he just didn't pull out a gun, shoot Hussein and save the U.S. from having to start a war.
There are so many answers to this, I'm not even sure where to begin. I'll start with the most important.
1. Dan Rather would forfeit his life in .8 seconds after the assassination.
2. Rather is a civilian, not a member of the U.S. Military. It is military policy not to employ civilians for assassination work.
3. Journalists do not take orders from the government. It would be a disgrace to all journalists and to Rather's career by executing U.S. policy. It defeats the purpose of having a press. Some of you think journalism has no standards already so there would be no real loss but you're the same people who came up with this bonehead question I'm having to answer. So what do you know?
4. Rather would've been thoroughly searched for weapons before entering a room with Hussein. If you think he could've gone CIA and used a hidden garrote wire in his watch, realize that Rather was 72 years old. It wasn't gonna happen.
5. Such an act would have put other journalists into danger or at the very least, many paranoid leaders would close their doors to the press. If you don't consider this a problem, read the last statement in point #3 again. Many times, press and public scrutiny are the only means of freedom for a nation.
6. It was the Bush administration's idea to voluntarily (read: preemptively) go to war with Iraq. If you wanted war avoided, instead of having a respected news broadcaster resort to an act of violence which may or may not have worked, you should not have elected a trigger happy leader.
