From: John K Clark (jonkc@att.net)
Date: Thu Jun 05 2003 - 11:55:46 MDT
"Ramez Naam" <mez@apexnano.com> Wrote:
>The real question is, would their task have been significantly harder
>without the facilities in Afghanistan? I doubt it.
Do you? I don't. Even if you're a crazy fundamentalist you are not going to
crash an airliner into a skyscraper just because I say so unless you are
convinced my plan will work and am some sort of a superior human being who
should be followed. To do that I need to isolate you from the rest of the
world and indoctrinate you, and to do that I need at least one secure base,
and to do that I need state support. They didn't go to Afghanistan to get a
tan I can tell you that.
> Iraq wasn't a substantially terror-supporting state.
That's the beauty of it! The message is clear, if you are a evil
totalitarian state you had better do your damn best to make sure the USA is
not hit by another 911 because guilty or innocent you will be blamed for it
and I guarantee you that will not be healthy.
>John, would you be so blasé if every person in the world had a global
>destruct button they could push?
I'm not blasé, I know it's a terrible problem but I also know that making
nice to Islam will not reduce their anger one iota because the root cause of
that anger was not any specific action committed by the west. They are angry
at us for what we are not what we did. They would be less angry if the
foundation of the west was some dogma, even some dogma they didn't like,
instead it is based on free markets and pragmatic problem solving and that
frightens and angers them. They would be less angry if our system didn't
work very well but we're rich free and powerful and they are poor oppressed
and weak. 800 years ago Islam was the most advanced civilization on Earth
but its been straight downhill since, today they are not even second or
third but dead last; we have the word of The Profit so it can't be our
fault, it must be due to those evil westerners, our only mistake was
embracing too many 16'th century ideas, we should go back to 13'th century
ideas.
Sure all that anger is dangerous and needs to be defused, I'm not sure what
will work but I am sure what won't work, starting a be kind to terrorists
policy will not work.
John K Clark jonkc@att.net
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