Tim,
<<<You know nothing about my psychological state>>>
<<<The 1000 or so sleeper agents are likely to launch a different form of attack for Round Two. >>>
<<<But the _effects_ of a successful Round Two, whether biological or dams being blown or whatever, would be enormous: more paralysis, another 2000 point drop on the Dow, and so on.>>>
<<<She said this may be one of the new hot areas in the economy: buy a gun instead of buying Junior his third or fourth videogame console>>>
BTW, was that an actual QUOTE about Junior, or did you make that up?
Your ability to jump to conclusions is making, Dan, Pete, and Ali seem like sweethearts. Only this is a much more serious subject and deserves far more thought.
I believe, as you do, that it is dangerous not to look at reality and facing it square on. Not facing up to reality will be dangerous. Let's look at reality. Let's look at the strengths of the terrorists and compare their capabilities against the capabilities of their opposition - or people that they hate. I am not suggesting that the terrorists can not do a great deal of harm and inflict tremendous evil, but let's examine the cards they hold.
They learned how to sign up for Hotmail (or something like it), they learned to use Travelocity to book their travel, they used the Internet to coordinate their activities, they used the communications financial infrastructure to receive money to finance their activities, and they receive rudimentary flight training from our educational infrastructure, they were able to keep fit in a health club owned by a small business owner, and they were able to recruit a small number of people willing to committ suicide.
Lined up against them are the people that created and built the Internet, financial institutions, transportation infrastructure, educational establishment, and small business entrepreneurs.
Take a look at what it took for them to destroy what they destroyed. And, also take a look what it took to build what they destroyed. What did it take to create the vision of the World Trade Center? What did it take to generate the financing? What did it take to design and construct the World Trade Center? What did it take to create the 50,000 jobs that housed the WTC? and, what did it take to assemble the thousands of firefighters and emergency rescue workers willing to risk their lives to save the lives of others?
I think you overestimate the power of evil and grossly underestimate the power of good.
Mary |
