If the war starts.....

B

Baskil

Guest
Millitary action at this point only aides terorists; it only gives them MORE incentive to do this sort of thing. This was done because our foriegn policy over the last... oh 40 years or so.

Granted, before I get flamed out of here, the US Millitary has been very careful to lessen the effect of collateral damage in other countries. And, yes, of course the attack of yesterday can never be justified.

On the other hand, while not justified, it should be understood. And understanding the logic that was used, any escalation of millitary activity will only increase the terrorist activities.

It's times like these that I am glad that I am flat-footed, over-weight, and less than 30 miles from a foreign country.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Frankly, yes. If you get those truly responsible, like tha planners and whatnot. The heads of the organization, not the dumb grunts who ae brainwashed into thinking that they're going to Allah by committing suicide.

Isn't it the Israeli airlines who haven't been hijacked since that incident where every hijacker was killed, no quarter given? I don't even think any negotiations went on. The Special Forces just went in and stormed the plane. There might have been civilian casualties though, so I guess you have to weigh whether it's worth it or not.
 
J

jcredberry

Guest
As I commented in another post (way too many posts) this is the kind of response the fanatic terrorist wants... They wnat to show to world media how their children are getting murdered by the imperialist devil... By doing this kind of propaganda they can justify to the rest of extremists organizations they have to join in a holy war against western civilization... This is what happened during Reagan administration and you can remember all the massive terrorist strikes they accomplish, including the PanAm flight over Lockerby, Scotland and the German Disco attack... Forget it, an armed response will only bring more chaos to the equation...

I don't know what THE answer will be, but I know what the WRONG answer is...
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Can you refresh my memory what exactly the Reagon administration was doing?

Let's step back. What will it take for the terrorists to stop their actions "peaceably"? Give in to their demands, of course. What are their demands? Depends on what group it is, but for this let's say US involvement in the Middle East. So what will the fallout if the US totally ends their involvement?

Well, the Israelis will get their weapons somewhere else. The US is only their biggest supplier, no one says they can't get it from England or France (or Russia or China, with todays climate). So are the terrorist attacks going to shift over there?

The arms industry in the US might fall a bit, a cut of jobs will probably take place.

The US has no influence in the Middle East now, will the British and French pull out of the "no-fly" zone in Iraq? Probably... so now that situation is back as it was before 90-91. We already know Iraq has rebuilt their forces and researching germ and nuclear capabilities. Will they go on with their "genocide" program of killing the Kurds? Probably... will they consider invading Kuwait again? Maybe... maybe not. I'm still not clear why they did it in the first place.

Overall, it shows that the US can be forced to bow to terrorist demands. So any other group will take heart that that's the way to go. Don't like them medding in Columbia? Taiwan? The Balkans? Ireland?

See how it can cascade? Is that the path we want to take?
 
R

rkoelsch

Guest
The optimum solution is to find out who is responsible for planning and funding this act. Retrieving them from their hiding place and putting them on trial. Showcasing that the democratic system they despise is a better system.
If that cannot be accomplished without further loss of life. I feel a commando attack that will destroy the planners of this atrocity would be justified. Not as an act of revenge but as a preventive measure to ensure that those people who have proven they are willing to destroy so many do not get the opportunity again. I would not think that such an action would seriously disuade any other terrorist from attempting the same thing.
I do not think that any attack on a country can be justified unless it proved they had an active participation in the planning portion.
These are just my opinions and I am a far cry from an expert.
 
Z

Zadok001

Guest
I've started referring to yesterday as "Black Tuesday."

I was up all night last night, watching CNN. I spent most of the night thinking, not about the horrific loss of life this horrible event has brought upon us, but rather, about what comes next. Not for us, but for the terrorists. I considered for hours what _I_ would do, were I terrorist with the resources and intelligence to do what they have done.

And everything that has happened since fits perfectly into what I would do. I would first strike a killing blow to some element of American society. In this case, that was the series of incidents yesterday. This would make the Americans very, very angry, and ready for war. America, in it's slightly out-of-whack self-image, would proceed to start an investigation to find out who did this. In the meanwhile, the American people would call for war. The government would be aware of how bad it would look if it couldn't find out who committed these atrocities.

So I would tell them who did it. And I wouldn't make it me. I would plant obvious, logical evidence, pointing to someone other than myself. The investigation would uncover said evidence, and would need a target. They would choose whatever target I gave them.

The people would yell for war, and it would come. But it wouldn't be on me. And the second the Americans began their strikes on an innocent people, I would show them the error of their ways, and show the entire world their mistake. Result? America loses any credibility it once had with the rest of the world for declaring war on the wrong country, for killing the wrong people.

And I win. Because America no longer has it's little entourage of countries to help it.

I stand for justice, not vengeance.
 
M

mogg bomber

Guest
Well said. At this point, I'm am very disturbed by the general war attitude going on in this country. There is no mistake, these terrorists who would have worked out a plan this far would have not only taken the U.S.'s anger into account, they're probably counting on it. I think at this point military action is the worst move we as a country can make, it is not a good idea to even consider blaming any one at this point.

I feel any attack now or even soon would make us no better than the people who caused this. Our current President makes me feel even worse about this, since Bush is even more likely to go to war than most people(since his dad's legacy is the Gulf War). Military action will not solve this problem, only make it worse.
 
A

Apollo

Guest
Damn, Zadok, that's the exact same thing I was thinking. The dude left a frickin' Arabic flight manual in his rental car. How stupid would you have to be to do that? And these guys are not stupid. I can't see them making some of the idiotic mistakes they seem to have made.

It might not even be somebody that hates America; it could be somebody that hates Bin Laden. Hit America, make it look like Bin Laden, and America will take him out for you.

The U.S. must not jump to conclusions. Justice, not random vengeance, is what we need.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
From what I'm reading, there are few terrorist groups out there with the financial and logistic support that was needed besides bin Laden's group. I'm not saying that he did it yet, but a lot of evidence seems to be pointing to his involvement.

And yes, crazy as it may seem, some terrorists ARE dumb. I'm sure you can find plenty of cases where they leave trails (heck, I remember one case of a suicide bomber in Israel who neglected to take into account the time change and blew up too early, en route to his target).
 
R

rkoelsch

Guest
I don't think the terrorist are afraid of us or fear our retaliation. We do not have the most sterling record when dealing with terrorist. Either we take forever to find the terrorist or we react inappropriately.

I do think eventually someone will claim responsibilty. There was too much planning and they lost some valuable assets to not let everyone know they were able to bring the US to it's knees.
 
D

Duel

Guest
Not afraid of retaliation is right. They killed themselves in this attack. What more can we do to them?
 
D

Daggertooth

Guest
What more can we do? Kill them before they have a chance to strike. Kill their children so they don't know how to strike. Kill the people they represent so another group wont emerge.


The question is, What should we do?
I feel a strike against the head of the organisation should be done. other than that we should change. Stronger restrictions with better intelegence. Most likely stronger preventative measures will allow us to prevent most strikes against us. But some will succeed. Like we saw a few days ago. :(

It's all too sad to comprehend.

Daggertooth
 
G

Griffith_se

Guest
Don't forget our past.
American's can be just as devout as
any terrorist organization, and have the
finance and fire power to back it up.

Believe me they know it too.
Believe me they know fear.

Don't fear - have faith - the freeworld
will not let you down.
The brave will fight for your freedom and way
of life, don't you worry about that.

This is not the begining of the end.
 
Z

Zadok001

Guest
"Somehow I doubt that a whole terrorist group devoted and killed itself in the attack..."

That would have been a great way to shove the US into an unnessesary war, though...
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Yeah, but these days it's hard for one group to totally isolate themselves and keep apart from other groups. There's financial issues, logistics, supplies, recruiting people... about the only thing going for it is that since they're "new" and no one else knows about them, they wouldn't be on anyone's radar (unless someone from recruiting talked or was "found" when they refused to join).
 
Top