Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: OT: terrorism (was Re: A projec)t

From:Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>
Date:Saturday, September 15, 2001, 14:13
bjm10 wrote:
> >On Fri, 14 Sep 2001, Andreas Johansson wrote: > > > It'd be no surprise at all if part of the goal of the attacks was to >provoke > > the USA to retaliate violently, reinforcing many Arabs (and others) in > > seeing the USA as violent and dangerous. Whatever you do, or don't do, >you > > risk playing into the hands of the terrorists - such's life. > >Do you advocate doing nothing at all? Do you advocate letting terrorists >just push everybody around with impunity? Paralysis by analysis is still >paralysis. If I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't, then I'll DO and >DO and DO and DO!
I didn't advacate anything - I just pointed out that the terrorist may actually want America to strike back with maximum force, since they may be thinking that a such response would blacken the USA's image even further, thus winning more sympathy and resources for themselves. Whether they actually reason along such lines, and whether they're right if they do, is obviously beyond my knowledge. Even if the answer to both questions is "yes", the American leadership must still ask itself which's worst - creating more terrorist sympathizers by retaliating or looking weak in front of popular opinion and the rest of the world by not retaliating. Andreas _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp