Critique On Operation Fast And Furious

I do not agree with the methods employed for Operation Fast and Furious. On paper I am sure the operation looked great and well worth it, but the execution of it was not up to par. The damage this operation caused is a great indicator that the methods were not effective. A major lesson to be learned from Operation Fast and Furious is the importance of strength in numbers. Three agents to carry out an operation that big and significant was entirely insufficient. To get the big dogs, it takes a large amount of time, patience, and leg work from several people; agents, analysts, ect. You cannot play fast and loose going after the top guys. In order to accomplish an operation like Fast and Furious, it is wise to start with the low-level guys and work your way up. Another lesson to be learned from this operation is the need for communication. Far too often, that is what botched operations and cases lack.

Sadly, the majority of the time the actual case agents and field agents get along and are on the same page working together, but the supervisors are the ones who compete with each other and want the glory. In my opinion, management is all about looking good to the higher ups rather than accomplishing the mission. The field agents from different agencies actually work great together when the bosses are left out of it. The collateral damage from Fast and Furious is absolutely not worth it. It is difficult to see the long term consequences in an operation like this when it was being planned out. Much of the collateral damage is yet to be seen. There will be collateral damage for years to come from those guns, much of which we will probably never know about because the majority of damage will occur across the border in Mexico. Losing a federal agent is not worth it. Federal agencies could have gotten the Drug lords in a different way. They always do. The drug cartel is not invincible. There are always other investigative avenues to explore in cases like this one too. It just takes work. It is better to let the drug cartel members go and live to fight another day, if the alternative will cost lives like in this case, Agent Terry. There is never a fast track to the top Drug lords.

Unfortunately, federal agencies and local and state partners still do not share information with each other all the time, even after September 11th. Everybody wants the individual glory and impressive stats, but nobody wants to share. It is almost like a competition between the agencies. There is also a great deal of mistrust between agencies. Every federal agency has stabbed another in the back a time or two for a case or an operation. When President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security, it did nothing more than add yet another agency that does not communicate and share information and intelligence with everyone else. Nobody wants to concede to another agency.