There’s no doubt that experience counts for a lot.

Before you actually have to deal with a dangerous or frightening situation (and never having dealt with it before) you can never be sure how you are going to react. I remember the first time I had to lead a team into a terrorist’s hideout. Until I did it, I didn’t know if I would be able to.

Two, possibly three police officers were on the scene at Mercaz Harav at the start of the attack, and they didn’t go in to storm the building and kill the terrorist.

Did they fail?

Most likely they didn’t have training for dealing with these kinds of situations. But worse, it simply wasn’t engrained into them that protecting the public is what they signed up for.

The system failed to train them properly.

When police (and the army) are forced to take part in, and train for political assignments, as opposed to their core duties there is no reason to assume they won’t fail when it actually comes to fulfilling the job they are supposed to be doing. Defending the average citizen.

Olmert’s latest hudna with Hamas failed, just like his (first and) second war against terrorism.

The first time he was untried and inexperienced and couldn’t know how he would react, but by this time he should have learned from experience, but he obviously hasn’t. Most likely because, just like the police, he doesn’t understand and isn’t prepared to deal the with the core mission he was assigned.

So instead he goes and directs traffic while avoiding his responsibility.

I was in Ashkelon Tuesday night. When I got to the wedding hall, I asked the guards where their security room was in case a Katyusha fell. They said there wasn’t one, nor was a Katyusha going to fall.

Needless to say, a Katyusha fell on Ashkelon (no where near us though).

On the other hand, senior terrorists were finally eliminated as they hung out in a Bethlehem restaurant the other day.

At least some people know their jobs and are capable of pulling it off.

I guess it comes down to some people are simply unable to learn and change, no matter how many times they repeatedly face the same situation.