Nitpick: At least according to the CNN article, the camera was found in his home and it had pictures of him at the march.
Could it be that our federal government is actually somewhat competent when dealing with terrorism? :eek:
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Naw, I’ll go with the terrorists being incompetent.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
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You do realize anti-abortion terrorists have been tried and executed for their crimes? And what word if not terrorism was used for Timothy McVeigh? And don’t forget that everyone originally thought the Times Square bomber was a Tea Partier.
Indeed right-wing terrorism is grossly exaggerated-the militas have been all words and no action, and Jared Lee Loughner was not an ideologue and plain old nuts (note how his shooting was more emphasized than that of say the Fort Hood shooter).
Sorry about that - I could swear that I had read that the camera was in the backpack, but clearly, you’re correct.
One hundred percent of what you just wrote is wrong.
How well do you expect any organization to run when the executives keep getting assassinated by the CIA?
Terrorism is a very over stated problem so that it appears that we have to arm up for generations to come. It makes good talk on TV and radio. It scares people into submission . It makes the military more powerful and influential.It makes a hell of a lot of money for contractors and corporations. It permits the government to strip away our rights ,“to save us”. War is profitable. A permanent war is a gift to the military/industrial complex.
The terrorism threat is one that keeps on giving. How would you ever defeat all the terrorist? How would you know it if you did?
Yet, all the money and power can never make it impossible for some determined right winger or religious nut to commit a crazy act. Then our government will have to crack down again.
Speaking of which - the Hutaree Christian Militia trial is scheduled to start on Tuesday, September 13th. They were arrested for plotting to kill goverment or LEO workers, hoping to spark a war with the police which would somehow or other lead to the Apocalypse and war with the AntiChrist (they conflate Government and police forces with the AntiChrist’s forces. Somehow.) They’ve been charged with seditious consipiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, various illegal firearm charges and so forth.
You can read about it here -
http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/region/detroit/hutaree-trial-date-set-for-september
Obviously there are such terrorists-what I’m saying is that their danger has been exaggerated by those on the left.
There have been plenty of attempted terrorist attacks in America since 9/11. I think the government is doing a pretty good job of preventing another grand gesture, but sooner or later one of those bombs is going to blow up and kill a few people or take out a bridge or something. The problem might be overstated, and our reaction to it might be too heavy handed, but I think it’s easier to have that opinion during the calm times.
I’m sorry; isn’t 9/11 an example of right-wing terrorism?
Not really. The left-right model doesn’t really apply. AQ appears to be pretty opposed to capitalism, for example.
I wouldn’t say so. Al Qaeda’s objection was to an American presence in Muslim countries. The stationing of American troops in the Middle East had been supported by both Republicans and Democrats so it wasn’t a partisan political issue in either direction.
Damn it! What am I going to do with all these “Palin/BinLaden 2012” bumper stickers?
I don’t think religious-based (and, when it comes right down to it, fucknuts doesn’t-even-make-sense-based) terrorism is so easy to classify on a right-left axis.
You could certainly say that fanatic Muslims must surely be right wingers since they have such conservative views (esp. when it comes to social policies and their idea of morality), are often nationalistic and/or in favour of repressive police states - but you could also point out that, for example, Carlos the Jackal is a die-hard Marxist who possibly was a KGB agent to boot… but who still supports fundamental Islam (at least as it pertains to Palestine) and has voiced approval for ObL’s actions. Which you’d think would be at odds with the whole Communist thing, religion being the opiate of the masses and all.
Guess the extremes meet somewhere over the horizon of sanity.
When 9/11 happened, one of my big fears is that Bin Laden would follow up with isolated but horrific car bombings in both Europe and the US every month/few months to keep the financial markets rattled, and to induce Western countries to really go over the top for domestic safety. Car bombs are the easiest thing to pull off - especially if it’s a suicide.
The only big international type terrorist incidents I can think of off hand are the 2004 Madrid train bombing and the 2005 London Underground (I don’t put in the 2008 Mumbai shootings because that seems to be an India-Pakistan thing rather than global destabilization).
Bin Laden simply didn’t have a network set up to continue on after 9/11 in the West.
I do think that at a certain point, left-right just becomes a huge circle of crazy. But that was kind of my point. I’m tired of conservative politicians aligning militant Islam with left-wing politics. Hell, I thought all fundamentalists voted Republican!
Which is good, because I can think of a half-dozen ways to destabilize middle America on the cheap. Without suicide bombings. In the end, most of the people in the world aren’t Bad Guys, and the cops actually do their jobs pretty well.
Couldn’t a case be made that, despite the effectiveness of suicide bombing, it’s actually exceptionally rare to find someone with the nerve to do it, even in a super-religious group that believes in martyrdom? Maybe they all want the other guy to be the martyr, but none of them have what it takes to do it himself. I think there may be something to this; perhaps humans across all backgrounds are equally afraid of death and it’s just as hard to find a fundamentalist Muslim who’s brave enough and faithful enough to blow himself up as it is to find an American to do the same?
Even if this is true, though, it doesn’t explain the relative lack of Oklahoma City-type attacks where the perpetrators do not kill themselves. For all of the guns in America, the truth is, you really can’t beat bombs for effectiveness, and the means to make bombs are pretty widely available. And even if bomb making materials are not readily available, at the very least, you’d think there would be more threats.
My take on this question, in my blog: The Cult « Reason for a New Age