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Whaleboy
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Please make all cheques payable to Whaleboy
Jan 2003
time: 05:28
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"The contents of a kitchen shel or garden shed work very well if used in quantities requiring a truck or shipping container, but not otherwise.
That's the rub -- the cheaper the weapon, the more expensive the 'delivery system"
Hardly
If I want to blow something up (which I dont, the thought is abhorrent to me, although I do like to think I understand terrorism), then I make a simple weedkiller bomb, which I load into a car, and drive into a high-profile target. The cost is something I, as a working individual, can easily meet. Anyone with a car, weedkiller and sugar can do the same.
"When you get down to the size and effectiveness of a Palestinian bomb belt, the cost is around $10,000 -- mainly the explosive, but also the 'safe' detonator"
If they wished, they could use far far cheaper means to the same end. It just so happens that tactically, their weapons are more efficient, but then, efficiency means little in terrorism, which is designed to cause panic, not actual damage. Even 9/11 was nothing compared to a single night of the Blitz in Coventry or London.
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Lord Merciless
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quote:
Originally posted by elijah
The solution to all this is quite simple. If America stops p!ssing off the Islamic community, via direct action or corporate globalisation, then terrorism will decline and die out, as they become more prosperous, less antagonised, and happier.
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That's the typical misconception if one lives too long in comfortable and peaceful environment.
Appeasing and wimping out is only going to encourage the extremists since they see success and hope in their actions. They would also gain far more followers because people in general tend to join a winning cause. Imitating Chamberlain has no future.
On the otherhand, purely heavy handed responses and whole-sale violence will piss off those who are sitting on the fence or were originally sympathetic to us. Acting like the Russians in Afghanistan and in Chechnya is also a big no-no.
The best approach is still the classic "carrot-stick" approach. We will show that following our paths leads to respect and properisty, while opposing us leads to humilation and death. We are pretty good at using the "stick" so far, it's the "carrot" part that we need to work on. The jury is still out on Iraq, but we will know more in a year.
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Whaleboy
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Please make all cheques payable to Whaleboy
Jan 2003
time: 05:28
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"That's the typical misconception if one lives too long in comfortable and peaceful environment"
What about one who had relatives killed by the IRA in northern ireland?
" Appeasing and wimping out is only going to encourage the extremists since they see success and hope in their actions. They would also gain far more followers because people in general tend to join a winning cause. Imitating Chamberlain has no future"
That would be valid if one was giving the terrorists what they want. I am not advocating the dissolution of the state of Israel, or the deaths of anyone who isnt Muslim. I am advocating that you change the conditions in which they live! You stop the ruthless globalisation a la indonesia et al, you stop hurting the community, you stop giving them reasons to hate you.
If they hate you, they will fabricate excuses to get at you. I am not saying that we comply with the demands of those excuses like Chamberlain. Also, it is ludricrious to compare this current terrorist issue with Nazi Germany. One was a single regime, an entity in this context, while the other are disparate groups of individuals.
"We are pretty good at using the "stick" so far, it's the "carrot" part that we need to work on. The jury is still out on Iraq, but we will know more in a year"
Agreed, however, I dispute that the stick need be used at all. Keep that for purely defensive if you must use it, via good intelligence and security at home.
We shall know in a few years, one is too premature, look at Afghanistan.
"Acting like the Russians in Afghanistan and in Chechnya is also a big no-no"
Then why is the US doing so, or at least walking down that road?
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Lord Merciless
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quote:
Originally posted by elijah
"That's the typical misconception if one lives too long in comfortable and peaceful environment"
What about one who had relatives killed by the IRA in northern ireland?
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I'm sorry about that. You have my condolences. Dealing with domestic terrorists is in my opinion totally different than with foreign ones.
quote:
That would be valid if one was giving the terrorists what they want. I am not advocating the dissolution of the state of Israel, or the deaths of anyone who isnt Muslim. I am advocating that you change the conditions in which they live! You stop the ruthless globalisation a la indonesia et al, you stop hurting the community, you stop giving them reasons to hate you.
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What does globalization have anything to do with Islamic terrorism? In fact, the greatest opposition against the globalization comes from developed countries, from labor unions to be specific. Developing countries rarely complain about globalization, having some investment is better than nothing at all! Globalization is in reality a process that diffuses the wealth from developed nations to developing ones.
quote:
Agreed, however, I dispute that the stick need be used at all. Keep that for purely defensive if you must use it, via good intelligence and security at home.
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No, the stick is absolutely required to get rid of the hard core bad guys. Saddam, Uday, Osama, Mullah Omar, and the likes must be destroyed.
quote:
Then why is the US doing so, or at least walking down that road? |
No, we are not. Had we acted like them, Bagdhad would be a smoking ruin today, and Iraq would become our second Vietnam. We have the ability and technology to go after bad guys accurately.
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Lord Merciless
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quote:
Originally posted by Sandman
The Saudi armed forces are equipped with American technology, a fundamentalist non-Saudi Arabia would be a considerable challenge to defeat, unless America has some kill-switches for its machines. |
Cool weapons in hands of incompetent leadership is useless.
China had technically the strongest fleet in Asia and the 4th strongest in the world in 1894. They got their ass whipped by Japanese in the same year.
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26-05-2003 02:21
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