Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: long-gone who wrote (2245)	10/12/2000 6:05:48 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 10042

Oh dear, Please stop. Now you are telling me I'm laughing at OUR dead sailors. I'm laughing at YOU. You are just so funny. Please keep it up. Maybe next you can tell me I'm laughing at Mom and apple pie. Or that I laugh at the American flag. What you don't KNOW is that everyone male in my family has been in the military and that our family are big supporters of the armed forces. We may not support the policies but we always support our service men and women. But that's probably too nuanced for you. So please, post something else to me. I've been teaching school all day, corrupting impressionable youth, and I need a laugh.

To: long-gone who wrote (2245)	10/12/2000 7:21:04 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10042

The death of the sailors is tragic; the notion that they could have been protected by a higher defense budget is laughable. What would you do? Surround the ship with a wall of dollar bills? All of the training and equipment required to prevent such incidents is in place, it only needs to be put to work. I've never met a conservative who thought that a problem of negligence could be solved by throwing money at it. I say "negligence" for a reason. I live in a former US Navy base in the Philippines. A few months back we had a port call from a couple of Navy ships. My son wanted a closer look, so we took the sailboat out and went over. I expected that when we got to a hundred yards away or so we'd be hailed by a speedboat with a couple of Navy boys and a couple of the local harbor patrol aboard, and asked to stand off. We weren't. We sailed right up to the ships. On land, an open gate led straight onto the wharf; no obstruction whatsoever. Anyone with a speedboat or vehicle loaded with explosives could have done serious damage (I recall posting about the experience on SI). We have an active Muslim secessionist movement in the Philippines, allegedly bin Laden-financed, and at that time there had been bombings in Manila, only 3 hours drive away. They were inviting a terrorist attack, and they were only lucky that the invitation wasn't taken up. How difficult - and expensive - is it to drop a Zodiac in the water with a couple of Navy explosives experts, a local team, maybe a dog to sniff for explosives? To keep a hundred-meter clear zone around the ship, and inspect craft that want to approach within that zone? Readiness is a problem, but I don't see money as the answer.