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To: rushnomore who wrote (46527)	9/12/2001 1:35:25 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 54805

The price we pay... Coming to terms with a dangerous new reality By Eric Alterman MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR NEW YORK, Sept. 11 — The first commandment of any crisis is to be cool. Don’t panic. Don’t do anything to make it worse. There is plenty of time to assess blame and figure out how to respond in a manner and moment of our own choosing. Nothing could dishonor the dead quite as profoundly than to kill more innocents in the name of vengeance and let the true perpetrators get away with their crimes. Tuesday’s attacks demonstrate how much we need to grow up as a nation — how important politics can be even if we prefer not to pay attention. It’s time to have a serious debate about the nation’s priorities and to make tough decisions involving difficult trade-offs WE ALL KNEW this was possible. All modern cities are vulnerable to terrorism; indeed to chemical and biological attacks that can do as much or more damage than Tuesday’s achieved. The politicians and pundits who conducted their dreamworld debate about missile defense and space weaponry against as-yet imaginary opponents showed precious little interest in these more arcane threats that any number of nations and terrorist groups already possessed. Now we are paying the price for the unreality of our political debate. Our vulnerability to low-tech earth-based threats was no secret. But it was not sexy and hence, $70 billion has been wasted fighting a threat that is so far nowhere to be seen, while this one was starved for both funds and attention. A CHANGED WORLD Now we have to figure out how to react to a changed world — a world where Americans do not have the luxury of feeling invulnerable any more. What, if any, civil liberties are we willing to relinquish in order to feel more secure? (Once citizens relinquish a given right, be it to privacy, freedom of speech, or freedom of movement, it is generally impossible to retrieve it later.) What kind of inconveniences are we willing to experience? How many metal detectors are we willing to walk through? How many hours do we want to spend waiting on line to get on planes, or even to drive through tunnels? THE PRICE OF UNILATERALISM Unless, as seems almost unimaginable, this terrorist attack is another home-grown threat like that carried out in Oklahoma City, then it is safe to conclude that whoever did carry it out, did so because they wanted the nation to pay a price for its foreign policy. After all, nobody targets Switzerland for terrorist attacks. Perhaps this is also a debate we should be having. Just what price is the United States willing to pay for its current level of world involvement as an independent actor, outside the purview of the United Nations? Many will say that even to raise this issue is to give in to terrorists. But an open and democratically conducted debate and discussion can be considered appeasement. I think it our duty as citizens. Everything about American politics and media needs to come down to earth. The cheap and easy media coverage of supposed sexual scandals allowed us to ignore and obscure the really important issues. Political Parlance Tuesday’s attacks demonstrate how much we need to grow up as a nation — how important politics can be even if we prefer not to pay attention. It’s time to have a serious debate about the nation’s priorities and to make tough decisions involving difficult trade-offs. There is no way to wish away our many vulnerabilities as a society. But we can address them sensibly and democratically, if only we face up to the fact that we never had any innocence to lose. We merely acted as if we did. msnbc.com

To: rushnomore who wrote (46527)	9/12/2001 3:12:08 PM
From: techreports	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 54805

To the Chinese I say "Shame on you." Chinese express sympathy over attacks but say US also to blame...For everything else I read on this board this morning (too many to identify individually) I say "I am proud of US." That is US the country and us the people of this country. God bless America. Well, i'm sure the Chinese people haven't forgotten the so called accidental missile that a US jet fighter launched at a Chinese embassy. You could say this action was for China stealing nuclear technology so it was justified, but i'm sure many of these terrorists justify their actions because the United States has done something against them. These people have a hate against the US for a reason. We have done something against them. The difference IMO (between us and them), is these terrorists are killing innocent people. If these terrorists targeted the military that is a little different.