# Does anyone still want to nuke Mecca? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 11, 2007, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823 "2007-09-11T19:45:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/41 "2007-09-12T16:35:54Z")
[QUOTE=Bobotheoptimist] I do! Not because I have anything against the people or Mecca itself. I just like blowing up stuff. [/QUOTE] Count me in on that. I have no particular love for Mecca and probably wouldn’t like the people who go there (I’m not allowed in, therefore the clubhouse sucks). So I think Mecca should be obliterated to atomic dust and a fireball. I want it caught on film so I can watch it again and again. Because there aren’t enough dramatic explosions in my daily life. I think eveyone needs a daily minimum number of explosions. ---
**Author:** ![Hellestal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ab097/32.png) [@Hellestal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hellestal)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/42 "2007-09-12T16:52:46Z")
[QUOTE=tomndebb] [Straight Dope pedantic moment] [/QUOTE] That was cool, I didn’t know any of that. What gets me is that despite my highfalutin words, a large part of me still sees the “logic” in returning a punishment greater than the original crime. “So you wanna hurt me and mine, huh? Then suffer tenfold harm! That’ll learn ya!” It just feels so… _natural_ that punishments more severe than the original crimes are the criminals’ just deserts. But that just ain’t so. > [@ExTank](#): > > The legal procedures we have established here in the U.S. takes most of the venom or “passion” out of the sentence of death; it’s not like a lynch mob, or firebombing, in retaliation. Yeah, that’s true. The whole legal process is designed to judge things impartially, and not just create a circus of bloodlust. One of the many problems with it, though, is that it reinforces the _standard_ of blood-for-blood, even as we try to implement it as impartially as possible. With American acceptance of the death penalty, we accept **in principle** the idea that a life can justifiably be taken as a government-approved penalty for murder. Now I didn’t cry any tears for, say, Timothy McVeigh, but not every murder in the world can be examined in the cool, impartial chambers of the law. When we have the general societal principle that death pays for death, but then suddenly have a terrible tragedy such as a terrorist attack that can’t be solved in a courtroom, then we seek to invoke that retributional principle in other ways, which sad to say is normally militarily. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Terror is not a military operation. There is no possible “war” against it. To stop such attacks requires good police work on an international level, not so-called “pre-emptive” invasions. I can’t prove it, of course, but I think that if we all as a society moved away from this idea of retributional death in our courts, then it would help us to consider our options more dispassionately as we respond to terrible events like 9/11. As it happened, we lashed out violently against not only the country that attacked us, but also another totally unrelated evil country, and in so doing we’ve created a giant pool of resentment that will fuel terrorist recruiting for another generation at least. So yeah, modern courts implement the penalty as best they can, but I still think the very existence of the penalty reinforces a potentially self-destructive principle. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/43 "2007-09-12T17:21:49Z")
[QUOTE=Tibidabo] The current issue of National Geographic has an interesting article on this. Well worth a read. [/QUOTE] Thanks–it’s sitting on the sideboard waiting for me. . ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/44 "2007-09-12T17:34:34Z")
Why not just open a Hooters in Mecca instead of nuking it? Marc ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/45 "2007-09-12T17:42:58Z")
[QUOTE=MGibson] Why not just open a Hooters in Mecca instead of nuking it? Marc [/QUOTE] To quote PJ ORourke, " Nothing cures communism like a Big Mac." I think it is applicable to this scenario as well. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/46 "2007-09-12T17:44:00Z")
Here’s a perfectly _insane_ idea… Let’s nuke one Middle Eastern city per day until we have achieved peace in the Middle East. Even if that peace is the peace of the radioactive dead… Day 1: Mecca Day 2: Jerusalem Day 3: Gaza And so forth, and so on. As an added side benefit, there will be no more of these “Holy” cities for people to be fighting over and committing terrorist acts in the name of. It only makes sense to do this, in a sort of completely insane, sociopathic and not entirely thought out sort of way… 🙂 :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/47 "2007-09-12T17:48:41Z")
[QUOTE=Kendall Jackson] What gets me is that despite my highfalutin words, a large part of me still sees the “logic” in returning a punishment greater than the original crime. “So you wanna hurt me and mine, huh? Then suffer tenfold harm! That’ll learn ya!” It just feels so… _natural_ that punishments more severe than the original crimes are the criminals’ just deserts. But that just ain’t so. [/QUOTE] You ever see Sean Connery’s character in The Untouchables? > [@](#): > > You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way! And that’s how you get Capone. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/48 "2007-09-12T17:58:26Z")
But it wasn’t. The bean-counters nailed Capone. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/49 "2007-09-12T17:59:46Z")
Well at least Mecca is in Saudi Arabia where, y’know, most of the 9/11 terrorists hailed from. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/50 "2007-09-12T18:28:16Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] But it wasn’t. The bean-counters nailed Capone. [/QUOTE] Hey, take it up with Sean Connery. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/51 "2007-09-12T21:21:53Z")
I found the opinion piece [The real lessons of 9/11](http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2007/09/11/911_lessons/) to be insightful (and it suits the turn this thread has taken; from [salon.com](http://salon.com), you need to go through an advert to get a site pass if you’re not a subscriber): > [@](#): > > On the anniversary of 9/11, we need to ask more basic questions – not just about why we can’t bring ourselves to pull out of Iraq, but why we invaded it in the first place…Bush’s America responded to 9/11 by lashing out. We chose vigilantism over justice, instinct over reason. Bush demanded that America play the role of the angry, righteous avenger, and America followed him…There’s a reason why Americans responded to Bush’s demand and why Democrats have been afraid to challenge it. It’s biological hard-wiring – after you’re hit, your instinct is to hit back. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/52 "2007-09-12T21:23:50Z")
Dennis Miller’s Syndrome - a psychotic break with reality due to trauma induced by 9/11. There is no known cure. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/53 "2007-09-12T21:23:53Z")
[QUOTE=MGibson] Why not just open a Hooters in Mecca instead of nuking it? Marc [/QUOTE] From [this article:](http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20070812/API/708120582) > [@](#): > > MECCA, Saudi Arabia These days it’s easier to find a Cinnabon in Mecca than the house where the Prophet Muhammad was born. > > The ancient sites in Islam’s holiest city are under attack from both money and extreme religion. Developers are building giant glass and marble towers that loom over the revered Kaaba which millions of Muslims face in their daily prayers. At the same time, religious zealots continue to work, as they have for decades, to destroy landmarks that they say encourage the worship of idols instead of God. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/54 "2007-09-12T22:25:08Z")
There’s a Cinnabon in the Al-Dhiyafah Mall in Mecca, as well as at the Mecca International Mall, just for completeness sake. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/55 "2007-09-12T23:30:22Z")
[QUOTE=Ravenman] I’m guessing that your boss will support Tom Tancredo in his effort to become the Republican nominee for President. > **[AKAI123 — Siasat Perang The Yellow Emperor Microgaming](https://misteriosdelmundo.net/ooparts-objetos-fuera-de-lugar/)** > > Atur siasat perang terbaik Anda di AKAI123. Dampingi Kaisar Kuning legendaris dari Microgaming dan raih kemenangan agung yang penuh wibawa hari ini! [/QUOTE] > [@](#): > > “If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina,” the GOP presidential candidate said. “That is the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they would otherwise do. If I am wrong fine, tell me, and I would be happy to do something else. \*\*But you had better find a deterrent or you will find an attack. There is no other way around it. There have to be negative consequences for the actions they take. \*\*That’s the most negative I can think of.” Will miracles never cease? A politician finally got something right. Emphasis mine. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/56 "2007-09-12T23:38:10Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing] You ever see Sean Connery’s character in The Untouchables? > [@](#): > > You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way! And that’s how you get Capone. [/quote] We obviously can’t let this type of escalating violence continue. It will only further destabilize the region. I say we nuke Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/57 "2007-09-13T00:25:55Z")
> [@](#): > > …But you had better find a deterrent or you will find an attack. There is no other way around it. There have to be negative consequences for the actions they take. That’s the most negative I can think of." If Tancredo is elected President, the Wrath of Allah will have been manifest. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/58 "2007-09-13T01:31:15Z")
[QUOTE=Clothahump] …A politician finally got something right. [/QUOTE] Sure. What we need is a “deterrent” that will not harm those who _want_ terror and bloodshed in the slightest, while convincing every Muslim everywhere on the planet that we deserve extermination. This is an answer that appeals only to those who want to _make_ genocide the only viable solution to our problems. Plenty of those around, of course, but they were around before, and will still be muttering to themselves on streetcorners after, the current troubles come and go. As far as I’m concerned, these lunatics can have their drugs and sympathy _after_ they stop trying to kill us all. In the meantime, we must, for our own survival’s sake, ignore them. **Elucidator** , I think Dennis Miller’s aberration was too early and too calculated to qualify as an illness, but I know what you mean: I call it Christopher Hitchens’ Syndrome. No need to argue, though: the malady is well-known. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Them](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/898d66/32.png) [@The\_Them](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Them)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/59 "2008-02-28T20:10:13Z")
Funny (or not so funny) I wouldn’t mind nuking holy sites at all. Don’t care whose. Yes, I am aware this is a _wildly_ unwise course of action, for many reasons. Who cares what Hitchens thinks? _The Nation_ got rid of him years ago for his unreasonableness. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2008, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823/60 "2008-02-28T20:38:07Z")
[QUOTE=Mosier] I remember 6 years ago I was one of the people who were passionately angry that the missiles weren’t already in the air. I ddn’t care who, or where, I just wanted as many Muslims dead as possible, as quickly as possible. [/QUOTE] I remember seeing that people were cheering in some places. I wanted us to nuke all those people. I’m not proud of thinking that, but I did. I got better, though. > [@smiling bandit](#): > > I think Mecca should be obliterated to atomic dust and a fireball. I want it caught on film so I can watch it again and again. Because there aren’t enough dramatic explosions in my daily life. > > I think eveyone needs a daily minimum number of explosions. [Go here.](http://www.atomicarchive.com/Photos/LANL/index.shtml) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-still-want-to-nuke-mecca/418823.md?page=4)