{"id":2874,"date":"2002-09-06T12:51:38","date_gmt":"2002-09-06T12:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.armedliberal.com\/?p=272"},"modified":"2002-09-06T12:51:38","modified_gmt":"2002-09-06T12:51:38","slug":"honest-i-started-writing-about-this-yesterday%c2%85","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=2874","title":{"rendered":"HONEST, I STARTED WRITING ABOUT THIS YESTERDAY\u0085"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u0091Threat assessment\u0092 is something I mentioned in the post below<\/a>; it is a simple concept. Martial arts skills can be crudely divided into two parts: what to do and when to do it.
\nThe \u0091what to do\u0092 part is more easily taught, and is what is studied in dojos and on traditional shooting ranges. The \u0091when to do it\u0092 part is more complex, both because it deals with real-life situations in which there are many uncontrolled variables, and because it introduces the element of uncertainty and risk.
\nUncertainty is important because in real life, threats seldom walk up to your door, knock, and introduce themselves as threats (actually, two of my favorite cinema bits\u0085the ATM mugger in \u0093LA Story\u0094, who introduces himself as \u0093Hi, my name is Bob and I\u0092ll be your robber tonight.\u0094; and the brilliant Wile E Coyote v. Bugs Bunny cartoon…have threats that introduce themselves). So you have to make a decision, and the problem is that on one hand the decision probably shouldn\u0092t be to shoot anyone who seems vaguely menacing, nor should it be to wait until that vaguely menacing guy is within Tueller<\/a> range or worse, has you in \u0093the hole\u0094 (a close enough distance where being armed or skilled isn\u0092t enough to overcome the element of surprise, and where a skilled opponent could effectively control you). These concepts are important, because they add the variable of \u0091potential threat\u0092 that must be assessed. A guy with a knife is not necessarily a significant threat to someone with a gun, until<\/u> the opponent is within about 21 feet\u0085the Tueller range at which someone can close and strike before a typical person could unholster and shoot. A skilled jujitsu practitioner will most likely control, disable, and kill an armed opponent if the fight starts with the two within arm\u0092s reach.
\nThe best class I have ever seen (although I did not take it) in dealing with this issue is the IMPACT\/Model Mugging series. They teach their students to actively interact with potential threats, which allows you to make the determination of risk at a range you select. When I walk up, the IMPACT student is taught to say \u0093Excuse me, but you\u0092re coming too close to me,\u0094 and then escalate from there depending on the response. If this were directed at me (affable, but sometimes irritable), I\u0092d back up, and probably shake my head at the oversensitivity and lack of trust in the modern world. The Bad Guy won\u0092t, and that difference in behavior lets you know what you are dealing with.
\nMy role model Clint Smith<\/a> puts it pretty well: “You better learn to communicate real well, because when you\u0092re out there on the street, you\u0092ll have to talk to a lot more people than you\u0092ll have to shoot, or at least that\u0092s the way I think it\u0092s supposed to work.”<\/I>
\nThis is relevant to our situation in the ME, because we are, as they would say in the South, all full up with \u0091what to do\u0092 and pretty well dry on \u0091when to do it\u0092.
\nNeither the leadership of the country nor the citizenry has really come to any resolution on what constitutes a threat, and how we agree we can appropriately react.
\nI genuinely believe there are people who wonder why we haven\u0092t turned the Middle East into glass in response to 9\/11, as I believe there are folks whose response to two nukes and smallpox in U.S. cities would be \u0093but killing all those innocent people won\u0092t bring back the dead\u0094<\/I>.
\nSomewhere between those two factions, we\u0092d better come to a conclusion on the level and source of the threat and our response and do so fairly quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u0091Threat assessment\u0092 is something I mentioned in the post below; it is a simple concept. Martial arts skills can be crudely divided into two parts: what to do and when to do it. The \u0091what to do\u0092 part is more easily taught, and is what is studied in dojos and on traditional shooting ranges. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}