(This isn't operational content, but it may become so in the future) On Tue, 11 Sep 2001 16:55:26 +0200, Dave Morton <dave@manbitesdog.de> 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.
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
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. 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