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Are you trying to say that everyone from the region is a terrorist?
Not at all. I'm trying to say that that it is foolish and shortsighted to assume that we are safe from terrorist attack because ALL terrorists lack the intelligence to pull one off. Jihadist organizations draw from a talent pool that includes intelligent people capable of formulating effective strategy and tactics.
I am hardly the brightest person in the world, and I've already described a hijack scenario that our security forces are powerless to circumvent. Here's another one. Ship a dirty bomb to the US in a container, with a cellphone attached which will trigger the the device. Then just post the cell phone number on an internet board like this one, and do nothing. Just sit back and wait for a crawler to find the number and sell it. Let an American telemarketer set it off and render Baltimore uninhabitable for six million years. But I guess it is true, that elegance is not their style.
Terrorism isn't the same thing as waging a sustainable military effort, each incident is meant to strike fear and promote insecurity among the intended targets. Sniping in warfare is a type of terrorism, fear and a rise in vigilance can become debilitating to the enemy troops.
The point of taking down the twin towers was to show the west that while large scale military action can present logistical hurdles to a lesser developed army, acts of terror can be done by a few men and have terrible consequence. The Muslim fundamentalists have shown that they are indeed a force to be reckoned with, of course the Soviet Union had their turn in the barrel with these guys and finally walked away. Once the terrorists have made their point it is supposed to follow that the US will come to terms with these people and some kind of deal will be struck wherein the US sees the cost of fighting them to be prohibitive and futile. All of our response so far has been unable to secure the nation and most people know it, the future is uncertain, and that's where the terror comes in............
While I'm sure they would love to nuke us I'm also sure that if they had guys here willing to blow themselves up on a subway it'd happen too. Its easy to fail to notice this escalation you mention since theres only been two real attempts, only one sucess and both attempts were on the same target.
What most people fail to admit is it suits our gov't for us to live in fear & give up freedom for security so they constantly feed the paranoia.
Well there was the trade center bombing in 1993. Later there was the Embassy bombing in East Africa. Then, there was the bombing of the USS Cole. Then there were the 9/11 attacks.
They aren't going to attack us until they have a bigger plan. Their plans have gotten bigger, and bigger on US attacks.
As far as the government wanting everyone to live in a paranoid state, I agree. While Al-Qaeda is trying to attack us with a bigger attack then 9/11, there is little we can do about it except for good police work. Just one of the many dangers we live with, to enjoy our daily freedoms.
Jturr88, I disagree that airport security is unnecessary because passengers have a better chance at surviving and defeating an attempted hijacking if the terrorists are not armed with guns or bombs. I see security measures as leveling the playing field between citizens capable of doing something and terrorists on airlines.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88
Not at all. I'm trying to say that that it is foolish and shortsighted to assume that we are safe from terrorist attack because ALL terrorists lack the intelligence to pull one off. Jihadist organizations draw from a talent pool that includes intelligent people capable of formulating effective strategy and tactics.
I agree.
Quote:
I am hardly the brightest person in the world, and I've already described a hijack scenario that our security forces are powerless to circumvent. Here's another one. Ship a dirty bomb to the US in a container, with a cellphone attached which will trigger the the device. Then just post the cell phone number on an internet board like this one, and do nothing. Just sit back and wait for a crawler to find the number and sell it. Let an American telemarketer set it off and render Baltimore uninhabitable for six million years. But I guess it is true, that elegance is not their style.
I think you overestimate the power of conventional explosives. Even with hundreds of pounds of C4 or other controlled substances (or a truckload of fertalizer) which is probably the limit size-wise of any conventional explosive a terrorist organization could conceivably ship into the US--you only get a very "small" explosion and cloud of radioactive particles. Furthermore, the radioactivity is easy to detect and clean up even if vaporized. You would need to get people out of the way of the cloud and out of the area during the cleanup, but--especially in a city with poor absorbative properties (mostly concrete an not biomass) a dirty bomb is really a waste of resources.
Furthermore, assembling a dirty bomb is highly radioactive, very detectable, and very hazardous to the health of those putting it together, so any organization making one would likely be sacrificing their top bomb-maker's lives and risking early detection over just sticking with the chemical explosives alone. You certainly wouldn't risk sending it through FedEx or the USPS for fear of triggering a chemical explosive or radiation detector.You'd have to hand-carry it through the port (more likely to succeed) and detonate it manually fairly quickly, as a package large enough to have any significant effect would certainly raise suspicion in a major metropolitan area if it were left in place for more than a few hours.
I am hardly the brightest person in the world, and I've already described a hijack scenario that our security forces are powerless to circumvent. Here's another one. Ship a dirty bomb to the US in a container, with a cellphone attached which will trigger the the device. Then just post the cell phone number on an internet board like this one, and do nothing. Just sit back and wait for a crawler to find the number and sell it. Let an American telemarketer set it off and render Baltimore uninhabitable for six million years. But I guess it is true, that elegance is not their style.
The cell phone battery would be dead long before this scenario could be played out. Fail.
Well there was the trade center bombing in 1993. Later there was the Embassy bombing in East Africa. Then, there was the bombing of the USS Cole. Then there were the 9/11 attacks.
They aren't going to attack us until they have a bigger plan. Their plans have gotten bigger, and bigger on US attacks.
As far as the government wanting everyone to live in a paranoid state, I agree. While Al-Qaeda is trying to attack us with a bigger attack then 9/11, there is little we can do about it except for good police work. Just one of the many dangers we live with, to enjoy our daily freedoms.
The bottom line is that there is a balancing act that takes place. The more freedoms we expect to enjoy, the more vulnerable we are. Conversely, demanding more security and safety will inevitably result in less personal freedoms.
We cannot have both complete freedom and complete safety.
The problem is that nobody agrees exactly where, on that continuum of freedom versus safety, we need to be.
No terrorist attacks have been necessary because the real terrorists (our elected officials) have been destroying our rights and turning our country into Oceania without our consent. Any created organizations like Al crapola exist under the supervision of the US government complex. They can oly attack when allowed to by Big Brother.
No terrorist attacks have been necessary because the real terrorists (our elected officials) have been destroying our rights and turning our country into Oceania without our consent. Any created organizations like Al crapola exist under the supervision of the US government complex. They can oly attack when allowed to by Big Brother.
Furthermore, assembling a dirty bomb is highly radioactive, very detectable, and very hazardous to the health of those putting it together, .
I haven't studied this in detail, but it is my understanding that a "dirty bomb" is simply a conventional explosive that distributes radioactive material, like that which hospitals throw away, across a populated area. Depending on the distributive force of the detonation, it renders a geographical circle toxic for a very long time. A few thousand Iraqis could round up that much radioactive material in a few months just by walking around in the desert picking up depleted uranium ammo that has been fired by the Americans by the ton and will be lying around there killing civilians as long as there are human beings on the planet.
For what reason, do you believe, there have been no successful terrorist attacks on the US since 9/11. Is it because security measures have worked, or is because nobody has really wanted to, or because such an attack would no longer be useful, or because (as Churchill said) revenge is a dish best served cold? Or some other reason?
I'm still not sure what my take on 9/11 was. I'd like to believe that the story is legit, but there are too many things that make it smell fishy. Given that context, as a terrorist I think that that attack was all that might have been "needed". I mean did spark us into a war that we're going bankrupt with, brought spying to the American citizen, rattled our security and started a great chasm between the parties (among many many other things).
Assuming that the terrorist perspective we have is legit, they've kind of already won. Maybe not the whole war, but they gave us a slice down to the core that will never fully heal. Even though they have the bombs in their back yard, they get to watch us dissolve as we swat them like flies. They knew the ways that we would react. They knew from the get go that they would never have to destroy us, they just needed to get the ball rolling and let us destroy ourselves. And that is what we've been doing ever since.
In that way, every heated argument we have on the subject, every bomb we drop, every terrorist suspect we round up is all a tiny victory for them.
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