High-Tech ‘Toolbox’ Crucial for Safety

• By Reps. Todd Akin and Geoff Davis
• Special to Roll Call
• May 23, 2007, 3:05 p.m.

Place yourself, for a moment, in the boots of a platoon leader preparing to enter a narrow, dusty street in a bad part of Baghdad. In all likelihood, this young lieutenant has been here before. But this time the streets are deserted, a sign that he and his platoon are in danger. He knows it is likely that an enemy sniper is sitting patiently somewhere along the street with his finger on the trigger of a high-powered rifle or the detonator of a 1,000-pound bomb newly buried under the sidewalk.