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 : Who and What was Attacked! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandintoes who wrote (548)	9/24/2001 9:43:52 PM
From: Ish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 660

Not to me. If I had a relative or a friend in the Twin Towers that died because a normal acting Muslim killed them I'd probably feel the same way. I went to the post office to fill your request last Thursday and saw 3, guessing Pakistani, people there to mail one package. I had two emotions. One was to say sorry you got lumped into all this goings on and two was to start breaking necks to protect the USA. I went neutral and did nothing but I still felt less tha at ease.

To: sandintoes who wrote (548)	9/25/2001 11:13:51 AM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 660

'War fever' rising, researcher says By Mary Ann Roser American-Statesman Staff Tuesday, September 25, 2001 Americans were more likely to describe enemies of the United States as "no better than animals" after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a belief they used to justify support for immediate military strikes, a University of Texas researcher said Monday. Alfred McAlister, a professor of behavioral sciences at the UT Health Science Center's School of Public Health in Houston, has been studying attitudes toward war and violence since 1998 and recently won a $900,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to further his work. He presented survey data Monday that he says measure the amount of "war fever" in the country, which he defines as "irrational ways of thinking about enemies and warfare that lead to actions later regretted." His latest polls, conducted before and after the attacks, show an attitudinal change in the way Americans characterized their enemies, McAlister said. Those agreeing that "some nations' leaders and their followers are no better than animals" rose from 38 percent to 52 percent. Overall, he found a country evenly split among those favoring immediate strikes and those opposing such action. "We're on the edge of war fever," McAlister said. Dehumanization of the enemy can lead to reckless acts that disregard the suffering of the innocent, such as shooting first and asking questions later, he said. "We need to prove we're better than they are," McAlister said at an Austin news conference. Those polled in Travis County, he said, were less likely to depict the enemy as subhuman or to support immediate strikes. Thirty-eight percent of the respondents in Travis County said they supported immediate strikes against suspected terrorists overseas, compared with 48 percent surveyed elsewhere in Texas and the United States. McAlister didn't have an explanation, but Dr. Robert Bernstein of Austin, who was Texas commissioner of health from 1978 to 1991, offered a guess: "Travis is a more liberal county," Bernstein said. Bernstein, a former state senator and retired Army major general, attended McAlister's presentation to respond to the findings. McAlister said much of his research has been on attitudes toward violence among student groups in various nations. His goal is to help young people resist impulses and actions they may regret. President Bush and most Americans seem to be avoiding war fever, McAlister said. For example, he said, attitudes were virtually unchanged on his two other measures of war fever: a belief that precision strikes rarely harm civilians and that collateral damage is acceptable. Just 24 percent of those surveyed said precision attacks rarely harm civilians. "I'm personally proud of the way the country has acted," Bernstein said. But at some point, the United States will have to use force, and civilians will die, he said. McAlister's research team randomly called 1,670 Americans in late summer, drawing heavily from Houston and Austin. After the attacks this month, 450 people were called, raising the margin of error from about 2 percentage points in the first survey to 6 percentage points in the later one. TP austin360.com