I agree, this was NOT Pearl Harbor, and I get annoyed when I hear people at my work talking about how it's "so much like Pearl Harbor". That's crap. There are only two things that this incident has in common with Pearl Harbor: It was a surprise, and it was an act of war. But let's look at the list of differences:
1) Pearl Harbor was preventable, had we been as alert as we should have been, considering a WAR was raging across the world. Perhaps airport security should have been tighter, but I don't think that would have made a difference. These people were far too committed to fail.
2) Pearl Harbor was a strike against MILITARY targets, designed to destroy our ability to militarily respond. It was never intended to kill civilians and inspire terror. In fact, relatively few civilians were killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor; and the Japanese certainly never shot up a hospital as was portrayed in a recent film. This incident was an attack on the civilian population of the US. You can argue about the Pentagon, but at least half the people in that building are civilian anyway...probably more.
3) We knew while the attack was going on who was responsible during the Pearl Harbor attack. We have no idea at this point who is responsible for this. The assumption that everyone has made is that some Middle Eastern terrorists are responsible, but I actually find that unlikely. I tend to think it was an inside job: domestic terrorists. I don't think that Middle Eastern terorrists would be able to pull something like this off, even in a country as free as the US, because they simply don't know how things work here. And as the Oklahoma City bombing showed, domestic terrorists can be very destructive as well.
The most important thing right now is not to jump to cause...Assuming ANYTHING about this situation is incredibly bad. It's human nature to want to pick the most obvious explanation (possibly due to Occam's Razor). In this case, however, all things are NOT equal, and Occam's Razor does not apply. The best thing that we can do now is work hard to find the people who inspiredthis. If we can capture them, great. Put them on trial and give them the death penalty. I suspect no judge in the country would refuse that sentence. If we can't, then waste them. The world would be better without them. However, nailing the wrong people would be doing the same thing to some other innocent people that was done to us, and that's not right. Major decisions should not be made while angry.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree, this was NOT Pearl Harbor, and I get annoyed when I hear people at my work talking about how it's "so much like Pearl Harbor". That's crap. There are only two things that this incident has in common with Pearl Harbor: It was a surprise, and it was an act of war. But let's look at the list of differences:
1) Pearl Harbor was preventable, had we been as alert as we should have been, considering a WAR was raging across the world. Perhaps airport security should have been tighter, but I don't think that would have made a difference. These people were far too committed to fail.
2) Pearl Harbor was a strike against MILITARY targets, designed to destroy our ability to militarily respond. It was never intended to kill civilians and inspire terror. In fact, relatively few civilians were killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor; and the Japanese certainly never shot up a hospital as was portrayed in a recent film. This incident was an attack on the civilian population of the US. You can argue about the Pentagon, but at least half the people in that building are civilian anyway...probably more.
3) We knew while the attack was going on who was responsible during the Pearl Harbor attack. We have no idea at this point who is responsible for this. The assumption that everyone has made is that some Middle Eastern terrorists are responsible, but I actually find that unlikely. I tend to think it was an inside job: domestic terrorists. I don't think that Middle Eastern terorrists would be able to pull something like this off, even in a country as free as the US, because they simply don't know how things work here. And as the Oklahoma City bombing showed, domestic terrorists can be very destructive as well.
The most important thing right now is not to jump to cause...Assuming ANYTHING about this situation is incredibly bad. It's human nature to want to pick the most obvious explanation (possibly due to Occam's Razor). In this case, however, all things are NOT equal, and Occam's Razor does not apply. The best thing that we can do now is work hard to find the people who inspiredthis. If we can capture them, great. Put them on trial and give them the death penalty. I suspect no judge in the country would refuse that sentence. If we can't, then waste them. The world would be better without them. However, nailing the wrong people would be doing the same thing to some other innocent people that was done to us, and that's not right. Major decisions should not be made while angry.
Anyway, that's my $.02. Flame at will.