Reason Why the War on Terror should continue

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by finnbow

My son just called from Wiesbaden to talk about the couple of apartments he's looking at. I asked about the European terrorist alert and he said that he and everybody around him were unconcerned. I think we've just become a nation of pussies - really.

lol

Bush got himself reelected by them so indeed they are the majority.

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

My son just called from Wiesbaden to talk about the couple of apartments he's looking at. I asked about the European terrorist alert and he said that he and everybody around him were unconcerned. I think we've just become a nation of alarmist pussies - really.

I hope you're right. If we, God forbid, have a repeat of a London or Madrid train bombing, even on a smaller scale, everyone will be back to wondering if we weren't careful enough. This will no doubt be accompanied by the usual political scapegoating.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

I hope you're right. If we, God forbid, have a repeat of a London or Madrid train bombing, even on a smaller scale, everyone will be back to wondering if we weren't careful enough. This will no doubt be accompanied by the usual political scapegoating.

True enough. I'm not necessarily doubting that there may be an enhanced threat of some sort. But what good does it do to announce it to the public in such a manner, ad nauseum? Just like the "Threat Alert Levels" from DHS. At the moment, it's yellow in the US (elevated), but it is orange (high) for domestic or international flights. That not going to keep me from doing or traveling to wherever I want. Just plain silly.

My view, FWIW, is that the national security apparatus should act upon whatever information they have, both here and abroad, but keep it out of the media. These friggin' alerts are of no use, and are in fact, counterproductive. They compel the pussies among us to not undertake what we we otherwise might, thereby incurring economic impacts and causing people to be afraid of their own shadows (not to mention Arab looking folks). Isn't this exactly what bin Laden wants?

Whatever happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave?

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

True enough. I'm not necessarily doubting that there may be an enhanced threat of some sort. But what good does it do to announce it to the public in such a manner, ad nauseum? Just like the "Threat Alert Levels" from DHS. At the moment, it's yellow in the US (elevated), but it is orange (high) for domestic or international flights. That not going to keep me from doing or traveling to wherever I want. Just plain silly.

One reason, and one reason only. Its the time-honored tradition of "political cover". The next terrorist strike will, sadly, occur, and folks like Anne Applebaum will forget they ever complained about terror warnings, and write columns that beg to know "what we knew and when we knew it", and "why we didn't do more" to either stop it, or keep innocent victims from being in harms way.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by whell

One reason, and one reason only. Its the time-honored tradition of "political cover". The next terrorist strike will, sadly, occur, and folks like Anne Applebaum will forget they ever complained about terror warnings, and write columns that beg to know "what we knew and when we knew it", and "why we didn't do more" to either stop it, or keep innocent victims from being in harms way.

Perhaps so. Also, keeping us scared is good for politics and the national security business.

[BlueStreak]

I think there will, sooner or later, be a terrorist attack regardless of what we do or who has "the majority". It's just a horrible fact. This didn't start on 9/11/01, it started 1,300 years ago. And it will still be an issue to some greater or lesser degree long after the lot of us are dead. But we can fight it, we can protect ourselves, but we have to be smart about it. Just flying into an angry rage and blasting the hell out of anyone who pisses us off or gets in our way, is just going to turn US into the country everyone despises.

That being said, I've always thought the "threat levels" were rediculous.
"Todays threat level is Mauve." So? What am I supposed to do? Hide under my bed?
Screw that, I'm going on with my life. "Threat level Saffron"? Sounds like a good excuse to have a beer. This is where I agree with Finn. Part of the terrorist plan is to keep us "terrorized" and skittish. If GWB was ever right about anything he was right when he told us we should, "Go on with your lives, take a vacation....". Damn square Mr. President.

Dave

[Brother_Karl]

The USA has never intentionally murdered civilians? You can argue your point but dont ignore history and pretend that the 'terrorists' are the only people who have intentionally targeted civilians in recent decades.

I have no doubt, in my mind, that if the Western countries want to win against these radical militant muslim groups, Al-Qaeda have to be destroyed and the less radical elements of the Taliban have to be negotiated with. It is hard, though, to pinpoint exactly what to negotiate with them. I suspect that stuffing their mouths with gold and giving them a few concessions on law in Afghanistan would do the trick.

Also, the US-coalition need to stop destroying drug crops - it annoys the hell out of the locals when you destroy their prime source of income. You cant win hearts and minds if you burn peoples livelyhoods to the ground.

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

This didn't start on 9/11/01, it started 1,300 years ago.

I disagree, this started on May 14, 1948.

[piece-itpete]

[edit: Finn] Entirely possible. But if we know something and don't say - it's a conspiracy.

Pete

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by Brother_Karl

The USA has never intentionally murdered civilians? You can argue your point but dont ignore history and pretend that the 'terrorists' are the only people who have intentionally targeted civilians in recent decades.

I have no doubt, in my mind, that if the Western countries want to win against these radical militant muslim groups, Al-Qaeda have to be destroyed and the less radical elements of the Taliban have to be negotiated with. It is hard, though, to pinpoint exactly what to negotiate with them. I suspect that stuffing their mouths with gold and giving them a few concessions on law in Afghanistan would do the trick.

Also, the US-coalition need to stop destroying drug crops - it annoys the hell out of the locals when you destroy their prime source of income. You cant win hearts and minds if you burn peoples livelyhoods to the ground.

But when you are fighting enemies who dress like civilians and hide amongst civilians, then expect civilians to get killed. One thing that will eventually do to regular army is cause them to snap after seeing their buddies killed trying to follow such rules of engagement. Then they start killing at random every time there are sniper attacks or IUDs.

To eradicate Al Qaeda first you need to find them. The Taliban are really unfit to live with their stone age ideas of justice.

Since most of the drugs from Afghanistan go to Europe and Russia we probably do gain by destroying their crops.

Perhaps we simply need to tell the world that the next attack here will resuslt in massive retaliation on the country of origin, then perhaps the Taliban and the Pakistanis would think twice about sponsoring terrorist groups and might eve see to stamping them out for the sake of self preservation.

At the moment our biggest threat seems to come from home grown wingnuts.