I have been reading and watching specials today. I am beginning to see how bin Laden thinks as he does, why he hates us so much. (Actually, did we really have to keep our troops in Saudi Arabia so long after the Gulf War?) I am also really beginning to believe there was another one who masterminded this; it is said he has two lieutenants, one a doctor, and the other some military genius. bin Laden might have come up with the inspiration, but it was probably these two who planned it out step by step, and no doubt funded by Iraq and Saddam. (A reliable source also said bin Laden is probably worth maybe only tens of millions; not enough to orchestrate what this entire mess probably cost.)

We do have to proceed with the greatest of caution. NO BLIND KNEE-JERK REACTIONS. I am really, really afraid of what is in store with us if this retaliation is bungled as Clinton bungled the bin Laden camp bombing.... Justice must be done, but not in rage.

Sheesh, is this the same me?

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Turns out Operation Noble Eagle was what they called the operation to protect the skies of NY and DC. Operation Infinite Justice is the name of the attack. Woohoo. They're sending aircraft carriers to the persian gulf right now, getting read for the big day.

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And wahoo, we're gearing up our warships. Yay. WHO ARE WE GONNA HIT? If we strike out ANYWHERE, we are going to be hit AGAIN within our own borders, and somewhere in the world is gonna be hit likewise. These guys ARE everywhere. And they've been here a long time. In 55 countries. And they're waiting.

We truly have a faceless, formless enemy. Striking back in ANY manner will only augment the Holy War these radicals think they are implementing. "I hit you, you hit me, we do this forever until everything is destroyed..." and then who will clean up the mess left behind?

That latter is what worries me.... right now, I don't trust ANYBODY, and not just the obvious "enemies," either.

Call me paranoid. Call me stupid. BUT, while I do not believe in EVERYTHING, I keep an open mind to ANYTHING.

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I heard he was worth $250 million, and hasn't spoken to anyone in his Saudi family in a good 5 years, so I doubt they'd really know.

We've made it clear who is target number one, bin Laden and the Taliban. Those will be hit first unless there's some secret plan to attack someone like Iraq and they don't wanna let out on it just yet.

Of course we'll be hit again. But I have a lot of confidence they'll foil the majority of these now. They've warned Jordan and another country U.S. Embassy bombing might happen there, and they've arrested a ton of people. Sure, there are more out there, but now they'll have an even harder time doing this, since if anyone sees an arab doing anything unusual, they'll call the FBI. And if they do attack us again, it will only hurt their cause.

Laurre, I think you were abducted by aliens or somethin.....

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Because we are still acting out of knee-jerk hatred. Like I thought a week ago. Yes, we have every right to be angry, to feel violated. We have been violated.

I am not quite as confident as you. I'll say it again and again. This is NOT a war of Lions; it is a war of foxes. We must be cunning and sly, and out-think theses S.O.B.s. I don't think we should only be looking for "any suspiciously-acting" arab. Who's to say that whatever they planned for a second strike isn't already set and waiting? They sure had the time to set themselves up UNNOTICED for the attack on the WTC and Pentagon!

An attack on a country already in the throes of chaos is lower than snake-belly dirt, IMHO. I see that now. Not to mention the fact that it will just egg this thing into continuing on and on and on.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." So wahoo, here we go, off to the optometrist.

>"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending
>spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead
>of diminishing evil, it multiplies it... Through violence you
>may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact,
>violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for
>violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a
>night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate;
>only love can do that."
> - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

[ 09-20-2001 12:30 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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Hmmm... if a member of the Saudi ruling family "doesn't know" of bin Laden's worth, then how the heck do we???

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Were you aware of the fact that there's a thing called the CIA? Sure, you'll say "what good are they? they missed this whole thing!", but money is easier to find out about than what happened.

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Have we yet uncovered the "missing link;" the proof positive? Yea or nay, why did we refuse to give it to the Taliban when they asked, in order to have bin Laden turned over in a bloodless manner?

Because we are still acting out of knee-jerk hatred. Like I thought a week ago. Yes, we have every right to be angry, to feel violated. We have been violated.

I am not quite as confident as you. I'll say it again and again. This is NOT a war of Lions; it is a war of foxes. We must be cunning and sly, and out-think theses S.O.B.s. I don't think we should only be looking for "any suspiciously-acting" arab. Who's to say that whatever they planned for a second strike isn't already set and waiting? They sure had the time to set themselves up UNNOTICED for the attack on the WTC and Pentagon!

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Even if we didn't have proof of bin Laden's guilt inthise act, we have it in tons of others. The Taliban knows that. We've declared a war on terrorism, bin Laden is the biggest terrorist of all. If sending small groups of the special forces there, at night, to carry out missions isn't 'fox like', then what is? Sure, we'll bomb them, but I don't think you understand we're not getting rid of intelligence, we're gonna make it much much stronger, which will hopefully find terrorists, and then on a case by case asis we'll either use diplomacy, military action, or law enforcement. I get the feeling you think we're a lot weaker than we really are.

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An attack on a country already in the throes of chaos is lower than snake-belly dirt, IMHO. I see that now. Not to mention the fact that it will just egg this thing into continuing on and on and on.

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You need CNN so you can see what the Taliban is really like. A few months ago they did an undercover thing there. They're like muslim nazi germany. They have public executions in football stadiums, mass killings, no schooling for women. You can be killed for almost anything. They support bin Laden. This government is a weed in the world and needs to be pulled out. Once that's done, I have faith the US and the Northern Alliance will set up something much much better.

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Even so, if that was what they had to do, I believe they had proof that plane was headed for DC.

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I also don't like the fact that our country has such a short atention span. Week one it was mourning, the next week it was patriotism, and now it's killing Bin Laden. I went to a concert last weekend, and you wouldn't believe the ethnic slurs. "Bomb em', Make em' a crater, kill em' all". But I guess after Pearl Harbor, our grandparents were calling for Japanese heads on sticks.

It may seem as though I'm siding with the terrorists, but you can't teach another country that it's wrong to bomb people by bombing them. I agree something should be done, but nothing too drastic.

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"Kabul is in darkness..."

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The creep. Jihad indeed, buddy. Let us recall that YOU made this a "Holy War," not the US of A. We have reiterated that this IS NOT a war against Islam, that Islam is A PEACEFUL religion. You sir, are a nut. A raving lunatic. You have no honor.

ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!

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