[shrug] I had no idea of that, and am not really too fussed about Nostradamus. Just thought it kinda interesting… I agree with your point on interpretation too. Same thing can be said of the bible to some extent I suppose.
A couple of points: One, “Arab” is not necessarily the same as Middle Eastern. People in Iran are not Arabs, and I don’t think that Afgans are either. (Someone correct me if I’m wrong.) So let’s be clear about what we’re saying. Two, the analogy with Libya in the 1980’s is a good one. Qaddafi (or however you spell it) committed acts of terrorism, and then spouted a lot of nonsense about how any retribution and “crossing the line of death” would bring about argle bargle burgle blather. Reagan’s response? Bombed the shit out of him. And we haven’t heard much from Qaddafi since then, have we? Three, in the case of Afganistan, Russia found out the hard way that ground attacks simply aren’t going to work. So, yes, I say carpet bomb the bastards. Every one of them. Any sympathy I might have had concerning “innocent bystanders” vanished when I saw the film of everyone cheering in the streets over there. NO ONE looked contrite or even worried about possible retalitaion. So fuck 'em. Far as I’m concerned, we should turn the whole area into a sea of glass and drain off the oil. Finally, I understand the point above about dead people not growing up to discover the cure for cancer or whatever, and I appreciate that point. Then again, when was the last time a Nobel Prize winner appeared from, say, Afganistan or North Korea? Let’s see, ummmm, never? I think that in any rational assessment of the situation (not that I’m particularly rational right now) the risk of having an Afgan baby grow up to be a vicious, violent thug is, oh, just a LITTLE bigger than having it grow up to be a great scientist.
I may have to add about 12 inches of cloth to the upper back of my old uniform but I am ready to go again. The clash of cultures, ideals and religion all over again. Unfortunately, all of mankind does not think alike. I have been in many cultures where I could not comprehend their rationale for some of their actions. Also, when religion is involved, it tends to put rationality in the back seat, eg, the Irish catholics vs the protestants. Same culture, different religion…oil and water. Some things we cannot comprehend but we don’t have to accept them when murder is involved. An eye for an eye is rubbish. Take 10 eyes for each eye…just make sure you have the guilty eyes.
There’s a time and place for everything in this world, this is a time for war.
A guy slapped me once. I turned the other cheek and the sorry shitbird slapped me again. I figured I was out of cheeks so I kicked his fucking ass, and that’s the difference between God and me.
Jim - great quote, but something tells me Rudyard Kipling never piled out of a huey or a blackhawk in the middle of a hot LZ.
The primary reason we have a terrorist problem today is that we trained the SOB’s. Because we were too worried about looking “cruel” to the rest of the world we have spent the last 30 years training others to do our dirty work. Think about this: When we were all in uproar over our hostages in Iran, who did we arm?..Iraq. When we wanted more stability in Central America, who did we train?..Noriega. We train rattlesnakes then act surprised when the bastards bite.
We were such estrogen laiden Pussies the last thirty years, trying to get by on “diplomacy” and looking good, that we forgot that not every som-bitch is gonna play by our rules. I say bring back the spooks, put the power in our hands, lets make Androsol and Tribex a mandatory daily required supplement and get back to being f’ing men again.
Bring on the SOB’s, whomever they may be!
U know why they can’t grow up to cure cancer?
BECAUSE THEY ARE POOR COUNTRIES WITH NO EDUCATION!
I was watching some BBC today,some lady talking with some guy…he said that it’s useless to bomb Afghanistan because they are literally living in the stone age…
Best thing and most difficult thing,capture the guilty and only the guilty.
Has the sleeping giant awoken, yet again? Part of me thinks the giant should stomp them out of existence, an eye for an eye. However, the bigger part of me thinks the giant should turn the other cheek.
Since when did automatic weapons and anti-aircraft weaponry constitute living in the stone age? Bin Ladin is a pretty rich SOB but he’s spending his money on killing people, not helping outmhis fellow Afghanis. Priorities. “I’m uneducated and poor so don’t shoot back!” is the biggest crock of shit I’ve heard in a long time.
I agree with Bill Roberts and all the others with a similar vein; good comment Jeff! Yes, it is a miserably poor country, and it’s hard to find a coward sending others to die for him, hiding under a bunkered rock…but to do nothing or even a small amount (not getting the job done totally no matter how long it takes), is what he and his cronies are counting on! We have carte-blanche (sp?) this time, no questions asked from ANY nation…er…except the guilty, who are soiling their drawers…as they await their justice!
Bill you are absolutely correct.This is not just about about bringing the individuals directly involved to justice,it should be about bringing every fucking asshole who had even a smidgeon of involvement to justice.I heard today that the Taliban have placed Bin Laden under house arrest.The US should take Bin Laden from them,thank them, THEN BLOW THEM OFF THE FUCKING MAP.The Taliban are hoping to avoid getting Afghanistan blown off the planet with such a gesture,I hope the US is not fooled.These assholes harboured him for so long, to their delight he has committed the ultimate terrorist act,he’s done his job,so they probably don’t mind sacrificing him to save their own asses.The US needs to make it clear that in the future ANYONE who assists terrorists in any way will meet with massive pain,swiftly and decisively.
First of all, I agree completely with the idea that we should find whoever is responsible for this and blow them to blackest Hell. HOWEVER, think about a lot of these comments some of you are making about “Arabs.” Arabs are an ethnic group. Many of them are Christian (such as my girlfriend and her family). Even the vast, vast majority of those Arabs who are Muslim do NOT support terrorism, suicide bombing or any of this crap. Those who truly follow the Quran know that murder is considered a sin in that religion, as it is in all major religions. These terrorist lunatics are a wacky fringe group, NOT representing the majority of Arabs or the majority of Muslims. It’s analagous to those who bomb medical/abortion clinics while quoting the Bible, claiming that they are “Christians.” They’re called evil, misguided lunatics.
The same mentality displayed here screaming “Kill all the Arabs” is the one used by the people who piloted those planes. To group entire populations together and label them as ‘same’ is such bullshit!
How about we apply these same ‘carpet bombing’ views to in-country terrorists like McVeigh? Everyone who ever associated, worked, or otherwise came into contact with McVeigh is also guilty, therefore we get to mass-murder all sorts of our own Americans now.
Anyone else seeing the problem with this train of thought? You can’t turn the entire Middle East into a parking lot because of a small group of people. If 100,000 Arabs turned out to be active anti-Americans, that’s still less than 0.5% of the population. I don’t think the other 99.5% are acceptable collateral losses just because they’re Arabs.
I watch in shock as the WTC was brought down to a pile of debris. Even as an outsider who lives miles away from the USA, I can feel the grief and pain of such innocent killing. But why the hell do I see photographs of palestinians dancing in delight to the tragedy?
Just what the hell are these guys thinking?
I stand by my earlier comments. If there is a real war, I will be enlisting. I am also not demanding that we obliterate every Arab country. For example, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have been our allies. Even if the terrorists were solely based and supported in those countries, destroying those countries would be obviously stupid. Nor am I calling for people in America to be hurt, as they chose to come here and operate their businesses and it is not their fault if they came from such wicked places. However, if the terrorists came from Osama Bin Laden’s camp, and the Afghani government won’t help us 100%, I still say we bomb the place out of existence, cities, buildings, everything. Yes, that means women and children will die. We should also offer Israel full help to rid themselves of the Palestinian problem.
i say what they did the bombing was really wrong my deepest condolences but the fact of the matter is an irrational act by a muslim should not be viewed upon as an act committed by the whole community!Its not proper to generalize!Would you still have the same view like in Okinawa where GIs raped a girl so are all Americans rapists?definitely not but this is the point i am trying to drive home that it is extremely appalling and distasteful the streotyping prevalent in this post.Carpet bomb and kill the innocent so what does this say-Americans are worse than the terrorists?i strongly urge those to think beofre they commit themselves to post such improper messages which incite hate between ethnic groups because come to think of it this world would not be able to sustain another World War because of the weapons involved !!!
Mark, sure, go ahead… I’m honored.
Iscariot, it’s really misreading what I
wrote and meant that an appropriate response
is to kill 10,000 terrorists, supposedly
“really meant” kill almost 10,000 innocent
civilians while getting a small number
of terrorists. No, it meant 10,000 terrorists.
Reportedly there are about 25,000 people
associated with Bin Laden, so it’s not as
if there aren’t 10,000 in existence.
Now, as to the practical matter of how
you get 10,000? No doubt one can get
quite a lot at one time through techniques
such as launching assaults at their bases
(and they do have bases). Now, is it possible
that some might bring their wives and children
with them? Yes it is and it’s extremely
unfortunate but if so THAT’S THEIR FAULT.
One cannot win a war by being absolutely
unwilling for any unintended harm to occur.
You seek to keep it as low as you can while
accomplishing your objective, however.
Secondly, the only reason there can be
so many terrorists in one place is because
the government there allows them to be there.
That government could round them up by the thousands if it chose. They don’t choose
to do so now, instead they choose to support
them. After a few hundred billion dollars
of destruction of their infrastructure, and if necessary the capture or death of the leaders
of these criminal governments, I believe they’d start seeing their way towards turning
over terrorists by the thousands.
I don’t think that capturing only bin Laden
or him and a few lieutenants would do the first thing in the world towards deterring
other terrorists from committing further
atrocities in the future. They’re used
to a few being captured. They’re used to
a few dying. They are NOT used to thousands
of them dying, and I’ll bet that the vast majority of them would be completely unwilling for their organization to pursue such terrorism if they had the understanding that they could expect to die personally by the thousands as a consequence. They have some kamikazes among them but I am sure the vast majority are cowards. (That’s why they’re terrorists.)
Bill, cool - we could have a terroist bring and buy sale. Seriously tho, I knew what you meant I just like playing with semantics. The only problem I forsee in what you suggest is that there are far too many countries harbouring Terrorists or potential terrorists, including, I might add the USA if you accept the potential for extremist groups in any form to initiate a series of terrorist actions. Now, from a practical sense, America may be big and powerful but it can’t take on large sections of the rest of the world at a time. I get the feeling that sugical strike teams will take out indiviual targets en masse, but countries themselves wil not be targeted, well and good. However, to be consistent, the US will have to get its own house in order with regard to how it addresses other foreign policy matters. You state that collateral damage whilst regretable is a fact, true; but when you ascribe fault to wife and children for having a terrorist father [or whatever] that’s hardly reasonable. Tell me, can you condition whom you love? If that was the case half the wives in the world would leave the cowardly bastards who abuse them at some time or another, but they don’t. Yes I know it’s not an exact analogy but do you take my point? Finally, are most terrorists cowards? Indisputably. But then so are most people who are not terrorists, most people when it comes to making a stand will turn and walk away…