Dry Run?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Croyance is correct. We here in the U.S. agonize over every loss of every life as if each of us is somehow infinitely valuable and irreplaceable. We have been told all our lives that life is sacred.

We have been fooling ourselves.

What makes gold or silver or diamonds valuable? Scarcity. What is the least scarce commodity on the face of this earth? Life. If I am killed within the next day, my family and a few friends would suffer for awhile but the world would keep on turning. We all worry about our children who may be in danger. The people on Iraq worry about their children too, as do the people in The Sudan. Yet their kids die, often horribly and painfully and the world never misses a turn.

The terrorists didn't really have to follow up the 9/11 attack. They accomplished their goal with that one event: they "terrorized" us. since then we've been treated to a whole new color scheme of 'alerts', to new and more oppressive legislation and increased militarization of everything from local police agencies to baggage handlers. This very thread is proof that they were infinitely successful in their effort to change our way of life, raise our 'dread level' and-- in general-- "terrorize" us.

Will the terrorists strike again? Probably. Will we be ready for them? Probably not. Will we learn anything from our mistakes? Only in our dreams.

To nip some rejoinders in the bud. I already know what it's like to lose children. I've outlived five of mine. One died accidently and the other four were murdered. The world didn't miss a lick.
 
As we get farther away from these events, I predict that several of the airline crash causes, during the last decade, will be revisited...

TWA flight 800 (1996) - fuel tank explosion?

Egypt Air flight 990 (1999) - copilot drove it into the ocean; why?

American air flight 587 (2001) - rudder failure? This was a month after 9/11. (I think the final report is due shortly...amid fresh rumors that one of the passengers has terrorist ties) link: http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=41846

While the anti-conspiracy crowd will point out how it's impossibile to conceal an intentional coverup, with so many people in the loop; I think the prospect of mass delusion (preconceived conclusions driving the crash investigations) among .gov agencies is larger than admitted. Difficult to think outside the box.
 
While the anti-conspiracy crowd will point out how it's impossibile to conceal an intentional coverup, with so many people in the loop; I think the prospect of mass delusion (preconceived conclusions driving the crash investigations) among .gov agencies is larger than admitted. Difficult to think outside the box.
Click to expand...
I think it's worse than that. I think that as evidenced in some of the above posts, some people just don't care. Human life is worthless, and so who cares?

My mama warned me there would be times like these. :(
 
What with all the comments on this discussion of "dry run", and the fact that airline pilots, with few exceptions, are still UNARMED, that a two bit bureaucracy, the TSA is allowed to slow walk legislation to death, the fact that the people of this country put up with such situations is amazing.

Of course, one might take a look at pages 1 and 3 of the current issue of Gun Week, the issue of 1 September, and wonder as to why on earth the people of this country put up with the foolishness therein described, yet they do.

The question that enters my mind might well be the following. Do the damned fools deserve anything better than the screwing they get? I'm not at all certain that I wish to contemplate the possible or probable answer to my own question.

It must be late, I'm getting cranky.
 
Wow.
Click to expand...
Nice way to take a snippet out of context. Political of you.
Show me where we, as Americans, care about lose of life in the rest of the world. As a society, it goes in one ear (maybe) and just comes out. Until it happens to us, then there are issues.
We comfort ourselves at the lose of civilian live in Iraq and elsewhere because they are Muslim, were not actively helping us, etc. What we really mean is that they are not one of us.
Want another example? While we mourned and protested over the 50,000 American lives lost in Viet Nam, over 5,000,000 Vietmamese were lost. How many Americans thought about that? Not the left, not the right, not the moderates.
I definitely had out two main points: That the lose was on a personal scale while the country kept on moving. Cold, but people were back at work the next day.
Another point I brought up: When we feel truely threatened, we will achieve a much higher "kill ratio", with more innocent lives lost.
Nobody even implied human lives are worthless, I just brought up real consequences. If you cannot seperate the two, too bad. A life has worth regardless of what they do or have accomplished. Stop casting yourself as the only moral man here. Emotional manipulation does not prove anything.
The comments about the "kill ratio" was merely to respond to your post. You imply such will continue, when it is not sustainable. So it also means little because in a military sense it is a one time result.

Another cost I did not bring up: the billions spent anywhere when "reliable information" is found indicating there might be a planned attack. These slow drains of resources slow down economic recovery. Another goal accomplished, the public and government get slowly desensitized.
I do not believe that any immediate operations are planned by Al Queda. They don't need to as long as they can get us to tire ourselves out by chasing our own tail. When we hear "Wolf" too many times, they will strike.
 
The comments about the "kill ratio" was merely to respond to your post. You imply such will continue, when it is not sustainable.
Click to expand...
I guess I am supposed to believe that you have some foreknowledge of the future in addition to your "hope". How nice for you.
 
No knowledge of the future. Knowledge of human nature and the past. That is sufficient.
When we feel threatened enough, we will end up depopulating entire regions. We have the technology and weapons. When people are scared (terrorized) enough, their real morals and ethics surface.
That is why such a high kill ratio is not sustainable. As I have already said.

And what "hope"? Besides wanting civil servants who think. I hope for it but do not expect it. I hope for an honest politician too, but I don't expect to find one. A winning lottery ticket would also be on the list.
Do the damned fools deserve anything better than the screwing they get? I'm not at all certain that I wish to contemplate the possible or probable answer to my own question.
Click to expand...
"You get the government you vote for."
 
When we feel threatened enough, we will end up depopulating entire regions.
Click to expand...
Since 3,000 lives are so very meaningless when seen in the "context" of the big picture, when do you suppose will "we" feel "threatened enough"?


On another note, two more murder-bombers just self-immolated on busses in Israel. Anyone care to wager as to whether or not the murder-bombers were Muslim extremists, or perhaps a couple of disaffected heiresses whose Symbionese Liberation Army kidnappers/cohorts made them do it?

I'm gonna bet the farm that it was members of Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, or one of the other death-cultist Muslim extremist groups. :rolleyes:
 
Who said 3000 lives are meaningless in the big picture, or that the big picture has anything to do with being threatened?
I said that the lives lost did not seriously impede the country from moving on and doing anything that needed to be done. As opposed to losing 3000 men in a brigade, which would seriously weaken it.
I somehow doubt you worry much about lose of life in other parts of the world.
When? Such a threshold is individual. We did get scared enough to rush out to buy duct tape and plastic sheeting. One guy even covered his house to such an extent that fresh air did not get in. We (again, as a nation) supported legislation that reduced our rights. We let new bureaucracies be created that will not make us safer, imho.

My mother warned me about people who deliberately misinterpret the words of others, use innuendo, use incomplete statements, and generate entirely new statements to generate new "facts". The most mild word for this is politician.
I guess we both learned something about our mothers "Fred".
 
My mother warned me about people who deliberately misinterpret the words of others, use innuendo, use incomplete statements, and generate entirely new statements to generate new "facts". The most mild word for this is politician.
Click to expand...
I'm not misinterpreting what you are saying in the slightest. Except perhaps to assume that you generally mean loss of life, rather than "lose of life". Other than that, I read you loud and clear. I've heard the: Hey! They're just Americans! Get over it argument before.

And I'm certain that when Al-Qaeda, or whatever the nut-of-the-month flavor is, sets off a radiological bomb, and manages a 10,000 to 1 kill ratio, that you'll have something to say about that too. Whatever.
 
So it is just the inability to read and interpret information.
And yes, I did use the wrong word. Loss instead of lose. Something was bugging me about the post.
As it happens, I really do not distinguish between country of origin. Life is the same, regardless.
 
Innocent live are all the same, American or not. Never in history do things stop because innocent lives are lost, unless a country itself is unable to keep operating. This is much different than saying the lives will not be mourned.
"Kill Ratio" is just a term to incite hate and panic. It assumes that this ratio will be held constant. It assumes that if 10,000 madmen took part on September 11, that 3,170,000 Americans would have been killed, which is untrue.
It assumes we must kill 3,000 people in revenge. What we must do is bring the people responsible to justice, an entirely different thing. If there are only 2 left, that is sufficient. If there are 5,000 left, find them and try them.
If it is all about revenge, then there is another country that you should list as barbaric. That emotion knows no bounds but exhaustion.
 
lets face it the 3000 dead in 9/11 are meaningless, more americans die a year from heart disease.

Al Q seem to be everywhere now don't they! Osma bin laden isn't even the head of Al Q but were spoonfeed that anyway. also interesting how fast the finger was pointed to Al Q even when they had no evidence.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top