OT: Counter-Terrorism is a Farce

[Phoenix-D]

Considering that strategy got the Romans overwhelemed with barbarian hordes..

[douglas]

Yimboli said:
do like the romans did - show up, kill all the men, enslave the women and children, and sow the fields with salt.

you didn't see anyone crashing planes into the parthenon did you???

No, you saw rebel slave armies rampaging around the countryside instead.

[Randallw]

Renegade 13 said:
down. Fire off a SAM at the aircraft, it'll go down. Its not like it has any electronic countermeasures like modern fighters. No damage to anything except the plane and the people on it. Yes, the people on the plane will die. However, the response to the hijackings is what will ultimately stop these attacks.

I seem to recall an idea to fit passenger planes with countermeasures. I guess it wouldn't be military grade but if the terrorists get into the cockpit they'd have some sort of defence. For the record I agree with the idea of shooting down captured planes. It seems harsh, but once the terorists get the plan the passenegrs are going to die anyway.

Edit: incidentally the Romans did more than was just mentioned. Perhaps I take too much from Sword and Sandal epics but didn't they also crucify everyone and plant them along the highway, 1 every 100 mentres. I am reading an alt-hist novel at the moment where they crucify criminals along the Thames. After 2000 years they have mechanical crosses.

[dogscoff]

Every time some terrorist {does something}, you first figure out where the terrorists came from, their home cities. This may take a little bit, but once you figure it out, you destroy one of those cities. Absolutely wipe it off the surface of the Earth.

Yeah, because that policy has really worked for the Isrealis. They've been bulldozing entire towns in resonse to terrorist action for years, and that hasn't escalated the hatred and inspired more terrorists at all. No. Not at all. Not one.

(In case you missed it, that was sarcasm.)

[Raapys]

I think we should disband the entire western news network, that way we'd defeat the terrorists' greatest ally.

[Randallw]

Not just the western media. I often wonder when they say the terorists have a new statement on Al Jazeera why they allow them to show it then. Maybe Al Jazeera is related to Al Qaida, they both start with Al (This is a joke. I tried to learn Arabic once. Al is the equivalent of A/The. Other than that I just know the rules for vowels)

Actually has anyone heard the Billy Connolly joke. He points out the terorists use Stanley knives (Box cutters) and they all come from places ending in Stan. Thats who we should be after. Stan. Stan BinLaden.

[Glyn]

Which would you rather have freedom or the illusion of safety?


How do flees kill a horse? They bite it until it dies of exhaustion from slapping, stomping, and kicking at the pest.

The 9/11 terror attack killed less than 3000 people. About 40,000 are killed yearly in car accidents in the US.


Blowing up hometowns of terrorist wouldn’t work. Wasn’t London the hometown to at lest one of the London transit bombers?

[Raapys]

Yah, the question is how much of our freedom we're willing to sacrifice for an increase in the chance of stopping the rare terrorist attack. Having my country turned into a police state with surveillance everywhere is unacceptable for me, but that is the way it's heading. If we continue in this direction then the terrorists have already won. It's not about killing people, it's about spreading terror, obviously, and we've long since taken the bait.

[Renegade 13]

dogscoff said:

Yeah, because that policy has really worked for the Isrealis. They've been bulldozing entire towns in resonse to terrorist action for years, and that hasn't escalated the hatred and inspired more terrorists at all. No. Not at all. Not one.

(In case you missed it, that was sarcasm.)

It'd be hard to miss that sarcasm, it was kinda like being whacked in the head with a board labelled "sarcasm" . My "suggestions" in the original post weren't really intended to be exact replicas of what I actually want done. If I was president of the US, it's not what I'd want to have done. The post was more intended to draw attention to alternatives, and stimulate conversation on those possibilities and the pros and cons of said policies. What I stated was a possibility, albeit an extreme one. It's not how I actually think we should deal with the so-called "terrorist threat".

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Can't always tell over the internet.