Hot Pursuit

This may be the start of an educational series on phrases that are not well understood. "Hot Pursuit" is what is happening in the picture to the left. In terms of international diplomacy, if the female turtle were to cross an international border, say the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the male turtle would have to stop at the border. Hot pursuit does not have to mean that the pursuit is done at high speed, only that the pursuit is close enough to be able to clearly identify the target of the pursuit.

Some people misunderstand the meaning of Hot Pursuit. For example in the phrase "After the suicide bomb attack, we were in hot pursuit of the perpetrator". Why is that wrong? Because generally speaking the most obvious perpetrator is dead, leaving you with no obvious pursuit option. The best you can do is an investigation, which might lead you to some person or place across an international border. But an investigation is in no way a hot pursuit.

Actually, the way many battles are fought, especially in Afghanistan, if there is any pursuit it is over very quickly. Coalition and NATO forces generally call in air support, and at the relative speed between someone running in mountainous terrain and an F16, the hot part of the pursuit is over almost when it begins.

So your homework for the day? If a Taliban assault vehicle departs at 4:00 at a speed of 1.5 km per hour, and an F16 leaves an air base 10 km away at 4:07, when will the F16 obiliterate the Taliban assault vehicle? Answer in tomorrow's blog post.