This has been a sad day, and the half-cocked, gung ho reaction of most of the people out there, while understandable as an expression of their grief and outrage, is also completely the wrong way to go. Large scale retaliation will only make things worse.
Don't get me wrong I'm not advocating doing nothing.
The people who committed this act should be tracked down i.e a serious investigation into which terrorist organisation is responsible. But it is likely that this involves only a relatively small amount of people. This is not an excuse for retaliation against an entire country - the argument that the country from where the terrorists originate( which might possibly be more than one) share the blame because they haven't done enough to stop the terrorists, is flawed. Firstly,most of the countries in question don't have the resources for adequate health, education or even military, let alone for internal manhunts of a terrorist organisation. Secondly, even if the country in question is antagonistic towards the united states, and so doesn't hunt down it's terrorists for political reasons - this shouldn't be interpreted as an action by that government, but as wilful negligence, - a crime but a lesser one - not worthy of warfare against an entire people!!
So what should be done : 1)as I said, find the people responsible (and make damn sure you've got the right people) then take action - something directly against the people in question(I'm talkin' surgical).
2) Tighten security - how the hell does a plane manage to get within spitting distance of the Pentagon. I'm sure there are a lot of difficult practicalities, but this tragedy should be enough of spur to overcome them.
So don't do anything until your blood pressures have lowered a bit - emotional murderous responses are understandable as an initial reaction but as the considered reaction of a civilised democratic government - NO WAY!
Slashdot Mirror
This has been a sad day, and the half-cocked, gung ho reaction of most of the people out there, while understandable as an expression of their grief and outrage, is also completely the wrong way to go. Large scale retaliation will only make things worse. Don't get me wrong I'm not advocating doing nothing. The people who committed this act should be tracked down i.e a serious investigation into which terrorist organisation is responsible. But it is likely that this involves only a relatively small amount of people. This is not an excuse for retaliation against an entire country - the argument that the country from where the terrorists originate( which might possibly be more than one) share the blame because they haven't done enough to stop the terrorists, is flawed. Firstly,most of the countries in question don't have the resources for adequate health, education or even military, let alone for internal manhunts of a terrorist organisation. Secondly, even if the country in question is antagonistic towards the united states, and so doesn't hunt down it's terrorists for political reasons - this shouldn't be interpreted as an action by that government, but as wilful negligence, - a crime but a lesser one - not worthy of warfare against an entire people!! So what should be done : 1)as I said, find the people responsible (and make damn sure you've got the right people) then take action - something directly against the people in question(I'm talkin' surgical). 2) Tighten security - how the hell does a plane manage to get within spitting distance of the Pentagon. I'm sure there are a lot of difficult practicalities, but this tragedy should be enough of spur to overcome them. So don't do anything until your blood pressures have lowered a bit - emotional murderous responses are understandable as an initial reaction but as the considered reaction of a civilised democratic government - NO WAY!