So, Jeb "calling out the troops" to go up against armed police officers doing THEIR duty seems like a reasonable thing to you? All it would take is one misfire, or one nut in teh crowd to do something stupid, and then people die.
That may seem reasonable to you, but it seems like defeating the purpose to me. How many people would have to die before you are satisfied he did all he could?
His big brother had no problem calling out the troops to go up against Muslim extremist terrorists and Iraqi soldiers doing their duty. Thanks to President Bush's leadership, we are safer against foreign terrorists. Due to Governor Bush's lack of courage, we are endangered by domestic black robed terrorists.
That may seem reasonable to you, but it seems like defeating the purpose to me. How many people would have to die before you are satisfied he did all he could?
A couple of points:
1) You are counting it a certainty, or at least as a strong likelihood, that shots would have been exchanged. I say nay. A sufficient show of force by state officers under the command of the governor, combined with direct orders by the governor of the State to all county and local police to stand down, executed properly, would almost certainly have resulted in the local law enforcement officials backing down. Bush is, after all, the Governor of the State.
2) Consider this: The Schindlers' lawyer appeared in court with a clear and credible affidavit alleging that Terri had clearly and expressly communicated her desire to stay alive (loudly replying, "IIIIIIII WAAAAAAAA!" in response to Weller's telling her, "Terri, if you would just say, 'I want to live, then this would all be over'").
Greer's response was very telling: Instead of addressing the credibility of the report, he struck this extremely relevant evidence down on a flimsy technicality. "You were in this court 3 days ago and didn't bring this up then, so you waived your right to have this admitted as evidence, therefore I reject the request."
When he did this, he abandoned (in my opinion) even the pretense of either fairness or decency, and made it apparent (to me, at least) that he is actively, deliberately and willfully killing Terri.
When you allow an official to do this with impunity, especially in public, be assured that you're going to get a lot more of it. Greer should NEVER have been allowed to get away with this. Regardless of the view that Greer "is" the law because of his black robe (or at least, whatever he says the law is, is what it is) - Greer's actions ARE, by my admittedly layman's analysis, both illegal and unconstitutional. They constitute depriving an American citizen of life without due process ("Your evidence is irrelevant because you didn't present it 3 days ago")... and there are several other crimes here as well. Greer simply ignored and disobeyed whatever law he didn't like, including laws passed by Congress. Why? He had the balls to do it.
Jeb had a responsibility to oppose this, with police force if necessary. It's true that for him to do so would have meant at least a slight risk of loss of life. The fact that he chose to avoid this risk (and the associated political risks) means that other petty tyrants like Greer all across the nation will be emboldened, and MANY more lives like Terri's will be lost. Many others will suffer in quality of life, because it's been clearly and publicly demonstrated that a judge at even a county level can get away with just about anything he damn well pleases. Jeb's handling of Greer, has set an extremely bad precedent.
Jeb had the choice of risking a few lives - to save a great many. Tough choice, admittedly, but in my opinion, Jeb made the wrong choice.