Handy Guide to the Differences Between Terrorists and the U.S. Government

The BBQ Pit
1

I don’t agree with all their points, but found this rather accurate and quite amusing:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: hard to tell the difference
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 08:02:55 -0500
From: “Nukewatch” <nukewatch@lakeland.ws>

Confused? Having difficulty telling the good guys from the bad guys?

Use this Handy Guide to the Differences Between Terrorists and the U.S. Government.

TERRORISTS: Supposed leader is the spoiled son of a powerful politician,
from extremely wealthy oil family

US GOVERNMENT: Supposed leader is the spoiled son of a powerful politician,
from extremely wealthy oil family

TERRORISTS: Leader has declared a holy war (‘Jihad’) against his ‘enemies’;
believes any nation not with him is against him; believes god is on his
side, and that any means are justified.

US GOVERNMENT: Leader has declared a holy war (‘Crusade’) against his
‘enemies’; believes any nation not with him is against him; believes god is
on his side, and that any means are justified.

TERRORISTS: Supported by extreme fundamentalist religious leaders who preach
intolerance, subjugation of women, and persecution of non-believers

US GOVERNMENT: Supported by extreme fundamentalist religious leaders who
preach intolerance, subjugation of women, and persecution of
non-believers

TERRORISTS: Leadership was not elected by a majority of the people in a free
and fair democratic election

US GOVERNMENT: Leadership was not elected by a majority of the people in a
free and fair democratic election

TERRORISTS: Kills thousands of innocent civilians, some of them
children, in cold blooded bombings

US GOVERNMENT: Kills thousands of innocent civilians, some of them children,
in cold blooded bombings

TERRORISTS: Operates through clandestine organization (al Qaeda) with agents
in many countries; uses bombing, assassination, other terrorist tactics

US GOVERNMENT: Operates through clandestine organization (CIA) with agents
in many countries; uses bombing, assassination, other terrorist tactics

TERRORISTS: Using war as pretext to clamp down on dissent and undermine
civil liberties

US GOVERNMENT: Using war as pretext to clamp down on dissent and
undermine civil liberties

TERRORISTS: Weapon of choice: a three-dollar box cutter

US GOVERNMENT: Weapon of choice: a billion-dollar B1 bombe

Nukewatch
P.O. Box 649
Luck, WI 54853
Phone (715) 472-4185
Fax (715) 472-4184
Web http://www.nukewatch.com

2

LIES! ALL LIES I TELL YOU!!!

The Bin Laden family is in constuction.

3

Hmmm, I wonder when this will end up in the pit.

Frankly, nearly all of those rely on extremely broad generalizations. As such, one or more of them will quite likely apply to the leader(s) of every country in the world. But it you add a few specifics, the comparisons fall apart.

I realize that you didn’t agree with all of the points, but frankly I find this of “humor” to be annoyingly ignorant - the kind that we are supposed to be fighting.

4

:rolleyes:

What Zyada said.

Sheesh

5

Actually, as previously noted, Bin Laden’s money comes from the construction business.

I don’t believe our government has come out claiming that any means are justified. Certainly we haven’t sought to justify the deliberate killing of civilians…

Well, yes, there are right wing supporters of our gov’t. But that’s not the ONLY support the US gov’t has, unlike Al Qaeda, which gathers its ONLY support from the Taliban.

I believe the worst you can say is that the presidential election was poorly engineered. It was “free”, and the rest of our government, as far as we know, was elected in accurate, free, fair elections.

Actually, that’s not the PRINCIPAL mode of op[eration of our government. And, if I recall correctly, one of the chief complaints about why this happened in the first place is that we have restricted the CIA such that they no longer engage in such activity.

Actually, it’s the threat of terrorism that is resulting in certain, rather logical, invasions of privacy that I think we have all recognized as being sensible under the circumstances. As far as I know, the gov’t is not “clamping down” on dissent.

6

Zyada, that was so beautiful I almost cried! Preach it!

–==the sax man==–

7

May I also point out we do not live in a pure democracy, and it is perfectly legal and correct for a President to win an election since the Electoral College does not evenly represent pure popular vote. Please refer to 9th Grade Civics and Government classes.

8

I took Geography 9th grade, and gov in 11th…

d&r

9

It is most certainly not the least bit accurate, and personally I don’t find it amusing at all. Aside from factual errors and outright misrepresentation, consider this: the US government allows the propagation of this sort of thing from anyone with the inclination and wit(lessness) to produce it, while criticizing bin Laden on his home territory would likely result in rapid execution. Make of that what you will, and leave your sweeping generalizations at home next time.

Sometimes the proof of how great a country we are is in the vast collection of people allowed to bray about how awful a country we are.

10

Moderator’s Notes: Right now. curiousgeorge, in my book (and right now that’s the only one that matters) this post, combined with the crap you posted in GD (and a couple earlier and similar threads) comes damned close to trolling. You’re posting this trash, without commentary, merely to see what kind of ruckus you can make. I suggest, with the next one of these diatribes, you offer some commentary. Simply throwing up bile like this is no longer acceptable.

Why do I sincerely doubt this? You’ll have an opportunity to tell us just what you find so accurate and amusing over in the Pit.

11

Some definitions. What is trolling? Which of my GD posts do you consider crap? Why is commentary needed in posts, and are there rules requiring commentary?

12

:eek:

ohh, better hope Manservant Hecubus doesn’t see this… or he will hunt you down and kill you! you managed to hit his one big tender spot with this line…

see otto’s thread about the navy guy, people wrongfully saying that the US is bombing civillians purposly will send MH totally apeshit!

if he comes along, i am gong to watch from behind this cement and rebar bunker and try not to get hit by the little bloody bits…

13

Moderator, are death threats allowed? Is free speech tolerated here?

14

What is the criteria you used for moving this to the pit?

15

Well, the membership is apt to use words like “asshole” and “dickhead” and “fuckin’ jerkoff” in their responses to the OP, and they’ll probably be more comfortable using that sort of language in the Pit. Think of it as a courtesy on UncleBeer’s part.

16

Georgie, you are nothing but a fucking troll. All you do is cut and paste crap you find on the web, then sit back and make vague comments. You are a worthless excuse for a human being. Your parents must be very ashamed.

17

Trolling is the act of posting controversial or imflammatory remarks just to get people to react. It is the message board equivalent of setting off a fire alarm or calling in a bomb threat just to see people run out of a building.

This thread went to the pit because all it will do is attract flames.

IMO, you are at best a fucking idiot, and at worst a fucking asshole for spreading this crap.

I hope you enjoy your BBQ.

18

What is this “troll” you speak of?

Death threats are not allowed if they may reasonably be taken seriously. Free speech is tolerated so long as the mods haven’t had a bad day. But they may be plied with liquor, chocolate, sexual favors, or wooden shoes (depending on the Mod), upping your chances that you will be viewed with toleration and not suspicion.

Bribery – don’t leave home without it. :slight_smile:

Oh, and excellent post ZYADA.

19

Oh, shut the flying farting fuck up already, George. Your cute lil’ “E-mail” is inaccurate on so many counts it’s sick. Your whole attitude smells strongly of delusions of accuracy.

Posting derogatory or inflammatory comments for the sole purpose of drumming up reaction. In other words, look at your OP.

How about this one? Pretty much the same shtick you did here… post a bunch of half-truth, generalizing bullshit and claim that someone else wrote it, so you can shirk responsibility for posting it. And it’s the same thing you did in this thread… just C&P’ed without any tangible comment.

Then there was this thread, where you made the claim that either the CIA knew about the attacks beforehand and allowed them to happen, or they’re an incompetent bunch of boobs. Nevermind that you ignored the possibility of a middle ground in that scenario. What was it called? Oh yes… “Fallacy of the excluded middle.” You seem to do that a lot.

In this thread is more of the same… C&P’ing, no explanation. Are you just unable to speak for yourself or what?

Commentary is needed because this is a message board. If you do not type any of your own words, you are not sending any messages. And if all you do is post some hateful, agenda-ridden “E-mail” without any modifiers, justification, or explanation, it is seen as hateful, agenda-ridden spam.

Because it’s definitely not About This Message Board or a Comment on any of the columns, it’s not a General Question, it’s not a Great Debate (it was debunked in the first two responses… that’s hardly “great”), it’s not an artful commentary (so no Cafe Society), it wouldn’t fit in with IMHO or MPSIMS (as they’re not YOUR words or opinions), so the only alternative is the Pit.

Now get a bit of learnin’ in yer noggin, boyo. It’ll save the universe much-detested annoyance.

20

I moved it here because I felt people were going to tee off on this post. And you. I need no other justification. I, and the rest of the staff, are the sole judges of what is appropriate for any forum.

Free speech? No. You are allowed to say only what we approve of. Read the registration agreement. I know you can find it, you quoted it just the other day.

I see no death threat. I see someone commenting on possible actions by a third party. Murder is a two-party only act. The killer and the killee.

What is trolling? Read this carefully. Posting potentially inflammatory topics and statements with no commentary, analysis or justification, merely to raise the ire of the membership. This is as concise a definition of trolling as I can offer.

Here’s what I consider some of your crap in GD. Again, a verbatim screed with no commentary, analysis, defense of opinion, posed debate, or, well, anything. Just some tripe you got off a maillist. You couldn’t even be bothered to check the facts. I’d go dig another out of MPSIMS, but I ain’t got time right now.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=93424

Commentary is essential to a debate. You posted none, not even an indefensible opinion.