Thread: What do you really think about this?

Well, another terrorist plot attempted and another one failed. Now we laugh and make fun of the would be assassins and their amateurish attempts and our great police work. Of course these guys are all crazy or misguided or have a variety of issues. Maybe their teachers in bomb school weren't so hot eh?

Our government is trying to minimize these events and trying to avoid panic. I think that is a mistake. Better to prepare the public for what is to come.

The bomb wasn't as amateurish as people think. He made it using common objects easy to get and without creating suspicion. A little tinkering here or there and it would have worked. Do we really care about the mental or economic state of these guys. The fact is they exist and they are like ****roaches. You step on one and another takes it's place. You can't kill them all and they keep coming and trying until they suceed. They are very patient.

No matter how good the police work it's reactive and in these cases you need proactive.

So do you think we need to be more serious about this stuff or stick our heads in the ground like an ostrich and wait for the next attempt and make light out of that?

On the radio today they said there have been 11 foiled attempts since 9-11. I'm not sure if that was the total nationwide or only in NYC. Sooner or later one will grab the brass ring. I happen to be someone who would be happy to give up some of my civil rights if it helps to get these people before they get us. YMMV.

I'll respond Spendur...I think we have gotten soft and I'm not referring to taking some aggressive action somewhere, I'm referring to America almost intentionally choosing a path of denial. America hates conflict as I think we are so conscious of our military strength, (waining now), former wealth. etc., that we have leant an ear to the rest of the world and mistakenly developed a Big-Guy complex...what I mean by this is we unnecessarily take blow after blow on the face because we fear that if we strike back, figuratively speaking, we will be perceived as the world bully. At this point, the bad guys of the world have our number and currently are playing us like a fiddle. They are chipping away at us and one day, we're going to wake up and realize that we are very, very vulnerable.

It is my opinion only that we have to recognize that there are bad-evil people in this world, it has nothing to do with communication, understanding, out-held hands...these types of people get it...they know what they are going to do, it's the diplomates and would be peace-makers that don't get it. Hilter laughed at Chamberlain's concessions and the result of those concessions were millions dead. He didn't want peace, he wanted to buy time and position himself for the realization of his goal. In short, much of the horror of WWII probably could have been avoided had not the diplomates and peace-makers rung their seaty little hands in denial of what they knew, but, pretended not to know for a certainty and therefore, excused themselves from the hard truth. Those leaders didn't pay, they didn't die, suffer, (except from guilt), everyone else did.

Again, it is only my opinion that we see the same thing with the leaders of several countries today...What has negotiations with North Korea gotten us...now we have Iran on the brink. The sad truth of this is that I think the average person today knows that it is highly likely that one day, we will have an event on our own soil that will dwarf the scope of 911 or Pearl Habor.

You know, being strong or being wealthy isn't a crime or a sin, it is being prepared and when needed, capable of handling what others may bring to you. Secondly, it doesn't matter how strong or welathy you are if you refuse to recognize the problem, how to best apply those assets to address the problem and then have the will to do so.

I really do believe that things are not getting better, they are getting worse and the sad part of it is that the faultless and helpless individuals of the future, our children, and their children are going to pay for our sins, fear and cowardice.

I think it will be a suicide bomber, similar to what happens in israel, that will finally succeed.


How do you stop someone that does not care if they live or die?

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I happen to be someone who would be happy to give up some of my civil rights if it helps to get these people before they get us.

Well I'm with Ben Franklin on this topic:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Not meaning that you, or anyone else on SRP, don't deserve safety and liberty, but rather that I just think it's ill-advised to give up liberties in the name of security.

Our borders are too easily crossed for our own good. If drugs can be smuggled across the border, and they are, then there is nothing to keep them from smuggling nuclear or biological weapons. Border security should've been a priority after 9/11.

Originally Posted by commiecat

Well I'm with Ben Franklin on this topic:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Not meaning that you, or anyone else on SRP, don't deserve safety and liberty, but rather that I just think it's ill-advised to give up liberties in the name of security.

BINGO!>>>>>

Originally Posted by commiecat

Well I'm with Ben Franklin on this topic:
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Not meaning that you, or anyone else on SRP, don't deserve safety and liberty, but rather that I just think it's ill-advised to give up liberties in the name of security.

I am all for personal liberty. OTOH, they can tap my phone all they want if it will help catch a terrorist planning to slaughter innocents. Abraham Lincoln famously suspended habeas corpus and FDR interned the Japanese naturalized Americans. Not proud moments in our history but extraordinary times may call for extraordinary measures. Now take your shoes and socks off and step this way.

If I were an American politician I would look to history to see what I could learn to solve this problem. How did England and Ireland resolve their differences enough for bombings to stop? There are many many examples of success, just as there are many examples of failures (e.g. peace in the middle east).

I know you guys like to do things on your own and for yourselves, but ask for help too. Canada's your neighbour and will come to your aid even though you make fun of us day and night. We're good at peace IMO. Look to other International friends too. Australia, Western Europe. I think it's time for you to look for as many solutions as you can, because whatever's happening now doesn't seem to be stopping any hatred over there.

Originally Posted by hardblues

I'll respond Spendur...I think we have gotten soft and I'm not referring to taking some aggressive action somewhere, I'm referring to America almost intentionally choosing a path of denial. America hates conflict as I think we are so conscious of our military strength, (waining now), former wealth. etc., that we have leant an ear to the rest of the world and mistakenly developed a Big-Guy complex...what I mean by this is we unnecessarily take blow after blow on the face because we fear that if we strike back, figuratively speaking, we will be perceived as the world bully. At this point, the bad guys of the world have our number and currently are playing us like a fiddle. They are chipping away at us and one day, we're going to wake up and realize that we are very, very vulnerable.

That is only part of the situation. You are right about the big guy complex, but what also plays a major role is the fact that the US has a history of throwing its weight around in other countries for the sole purpose of short term benefit. The actions in Iran and Iraq a couple of decades ago were bound to raise a generation of people for whom the US really IS the great Satan.

Every country on earth has some enemies who'd like to take a swing at it. What the US has done over the last decades is creating a large group of people with a lingering resentment towards the US from which people can be recruited to attack.

And you are right, sooner or later, someone will succeed.
But even if a bomb were to set off in a major US city every day, the chances of dying because of one would still be thousands of times smaller than the odds that you get into a lethal car accident.