rec.autos.simulators

The formal declaration of war was SUPPOSED to be delivered about an hour before
the first bombs fell.  A bureaucratic screwup delayed the documents.

Eldred
--
Dale Earnhardt, Sr. R.I.P. 1951-2001
Homepage - http://www.racesimcentral.net/~epickett
F1 hcp. +16.36...Monster +360.54...

Never argue with an idiot.  He brings you down to his level, then beats you
with experience...
Remove SPAM-OFF to reply.

Unfortunately, we've been there already.  And yes, we'll
probably experience it again.

Truck bomb attacks are a staple of terrorists world wide, and
we actually do have a lot of security against them (not that
it protects more than a small fraction of potential juicy targets).

The perpetrators of this attack were going for death and
destruction on an unprecedented scale.  How could the next
attack of unprecedented scale take place?  I'm hard pressed
to think of something more effective than a "suitcase bomb".
And once acquired, such a device would be EASY to smuggle
into the United States.  Just fly it over the border in a
private plane and drop it in a floating package into a small
lake or river before eventually landing.  A waiting speedboat
goes and picks it up.

It is a mistake to have tunnel vision and just concentrate on
the few threats you can think of, I must admit.

Isaac Kuo

As a matter of fact, the American people DO have a major impact
on what the President does.  This is particularly true of Clinton
during his second term of office, where he made practically every
decision by opinion poll.  It's fair to say that he didn't lead
the country in his second term--the country led him.

Americans demanded swift retaliation for previous terrorist attacks.
Americans also demanded that no U.S. lives--not even volunteer
soldiers--be risked.  Given these constraints, a cruise missile
strike is more or less the only option.  Not an effective one,
obviously.  But it's the one the American public de facto demanded.

Even with the atrocious attack on Tuesday, there are still
unthinkable options.  We have the capability to nuke the
entire Middle East into oblivion.  This option is unthinkable.

But there are new options available to us now.  Before Tuesday,
a ground invasion of an enemy country was unthinkable.  The
American public would not accept it, nor would the world community.
It wouldn't matter if the President were Clinton or***or Bush
or McCain.  A ground invasion of Afghanistan would have been ***y
and it would have failed due to crumbling support back home as
well as abroad.

The attack on Tuesday has given the American public the resolve
to support such a war, if necessary.  It's still a ***y option.
But it's one which we can now seriously consider.

GW's administration is letting the talking heads of the news
media let the message sink in a bit.  We are NOT going to nuke
anybody.  If it turns out we need to go in force to remove an
enemy regime, it will involve a massive deployment of ground
forces.  A whole lot more than "three of us" are going to lose
our lives doing something about it.

We won't do it out of hatred.  We'll do it because it's
the right thing to do for our country, our citizens, and the
whole world.

Isaac Kuo

Afghanistan is not a united country, and the Taliban are very short of
weaponry.  They know better than to be defiant.  Probably.

- Gerry Quinn

   The U.S. has finally learned what other countries have learned over
time: you cannot reason with these terrorists. That has been tried, in
Northern Ireland, in the Middle East, in the Phillipines, in Chechnya,
etc. The terrorists are willing to talk, but all of that talking has
not produced peace. These people are taught to hate, to ***, to
kill.

   We need to stop accomodating *any* terrorist group, internal or
external. To go back to World War II, we should demand nothing less
than unconditional surrender from terrorist organizations. No
negotiating tables, no peace process, ZERO media coverage of their
spokes-critters.

   To some level, that has already started-- passengers on the 4th
airplane, the one that went down near Pittsburgh, heard thru cell
phones of what the first few planes had done. They knew they were
almost certainly all going to die. Several passengers voted to
un-hijack the plane. Shortly later, the plane went down in a deserted
field. We may never know exactly what happened. But, those passengers
deserve medals for making sure that no more lives were lost. Future
hijackers are going to have to think twice, to see if they can live
long enough to hit a target with the plane.

   Justice is demanded in this time. However, we must temper the
demands on *all* terrorist's lives (those who do not surrender) with
precision. Their camps, their leaders must pay. Do not enrage others
who may be passive at this time.

   Down the road, we need to be a voice of sanity to the countries
that produced these terrorists. Most of those countries in the Middle
East that produce terrorists are not democracies. [The exception is
Israel, which should be supported.] The media is controlled in those
countries, brainwashing the people with pure propaganda, saying that
it is noble and good to kill off the evil Americans.

   Given a diet of that, it is no wonder why civillians cheered the
destruction. Don't hold the civillians fully responsible, just for
having no conscience. Hold the media and propagandists responsible for
the diet of lies and hate they spread. Those are the arms of terrorist
organizations, and if we cannot knock a clue into them, we need to
counter-broadcast the truth, just as we did with Radio Free Europe
into the Communist Bloc[heads] decades ago. The truth shall set the
people free from the lies and hate.

Nathan Mates
--
<*> Nathan Mates - personal webpage http://www.racesimcentral.net/~nathan/  
# Programmer at Pandemic Studios -- http://www.racesimcentral.net/
# NOT speaking for Pandemic Studios. "Care not what the neighbors
# think. What are the facts, and to how many decimal places?" -R.A. Heinlein

Mattias

Disgustingly, many people seem to be thinking of exactly that option.
It's terrifying.

-Quatoria
--
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that
faith does not prove anything.
       -- Friederich Nietzsche
Shameless Plug - Visit www.hardnews.org for even more of Q's unpaid ranting.

-Quatoria
--
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that
faith does not prove anything.
       -- Friederich Nietzsche
Shameless Plug - Visit www.hardnews.org for even more of Q's unpaid ranting.

--
Jason Shankel
Maxis/EA
s h a n k e l "at" p o b o x . c o m
Play rich, creamery OpenTrek at www.pobox.com/~shankel/opentrek.html

-Quatoria
--
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that
faith does not prove anything.
       -- Friederich Nietzsche
Shameless Plug - Visit www.hardnews.org for even more of Q's unpaid ranting.

And, just so we're totally clear, that's not what I was implying. :)

/bruce