North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: Horrible world trade center crash, traffic effect
(This isn't operational content, but it may become so in the future) On Tue, 11 Sep 2001 16:55:26 +0200, Dave Morton <[email protected]> said: > I am watching here on satellite Sky News and CNN. > Someone out there with a pretty sick mind. Whoever > is responsible for this has competely outed themselves. This attitude is one that we have to combat if we have any hope of winning a war that involves terrorism. The people responsible were *NOT* sick. They were *very* logical, well-prepared, methodical, and rational. The problem is that they started with their world-view, which included the concept that Western civilization as we know it must be destroyed. >From there, they have come up with an incredibly good attack when measured on a casualty basis - assume 4 airliners, and 3 operatives per airliner. Any military commander would be proud of an operation that had 12 casualties on their side, and thousands on the enemy's side. Combined with the second-order economic impact of airline shutdown and widespread closures, and the third-order impact of making the enemy nervous, they've suceeded in their goals. We shy away from injuring non-combatant civilians. Under their rules, civilians are not non-combatants because civilians are supporting the Western civilization the terrorists are at war with. Remember that *WE* didn't have qualms about civilians killed in bombing runs on German factories - the terrorists are merely taking a slightly wider definition of combatant... Regarding them as sick/twisted is very dangerous. They're rational, intelligent, and reasoning from different ground rules. And remember - the US dropped 2 nukes. I'm sure the residents of a few Japanese cities thought that Truman was sick and twisted for allowing it to happen. Valdis Kletnieks Operating Systems Analyst Virginia Tech
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