# It's deja vue all over again! Now it's Arab terrorists instead of commies, Japs **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 28, 2002, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-deja-vue-all-over-again-now-its-arab-terrorists-instead-of-commies-japs/106126 "2002-04-28T15:46:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![berdollos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@berdollos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/berdollos)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-deja-vue-all-over-again-now-its-arab-terrorists-instead-of-commies-japs/106126/1 "2002-04-28T15:46:20Z")
and Germans. When I was a kid in the late 40s, early 50s, we played WWII games. I remember playing Kamikaze and diving into imaginary ships with my little friends. I thought the word “German” had something to do with “Germs.” Later, I was on the alert for “Commies” as a 10 year old. Not to mention the “Duck and Cover” drills and helping the Civil Air Patrol by looking for Russian planes. So the current pre-occupation with terrorists, etc. is not so new to me. IT is deja vu all over again! ---
**Author:** ![lenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3bc359/32.png) [@lenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lenin)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-deja-vue-all-over-again-now-its-arab-terrorists-instead-of-commies-japs/106126/2 "2002-04-28T15:54:18Z")
Were there [Communist Action Figures](http://www.herobuilders.com/osblowbinlad1.html) in your time? [sub]_fixed coding_[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![berdollos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@berdollos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/berdollos)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-deja-vue-all-over-again-now-its-arab-terrorists-instead-of-commies-japs/106126/3 "2002-04-28T15:56:22Z")
I think they came latter. I remember having a Yuri Gagarin poster in the '60s in my college dorm room. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-deja-vue-all-over-again-now-its-arab-terrorists-instead-of-commies-japs/106126/4 "2002-04-28T19:58:46Z")
Did’ja REALLY think the military and their friends were going to say, “Oppps, no more bad guys. We won’t need any more toys, thank you?” The USA REQUIRES an enemy. If no one presents itself, we will DECLARE an enemy. and we WILL secure every last inch of the pipeline from Kazakhstan to the Arabian Sea ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-deja-vue-all-over-again-now-its-arab-terrorists-instead-of-commies-japs/106126/5 "2002-04-29T00:05:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by berdollos \* > \*\*I think they came latter. I remember having a Yuri Gagarin poster in the '60s in my college dorm room. \*\* Well, Yuri was dreamy. _sigh_😛 ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-deja-vue-all-over-again-now-its-arab-terrorists-instead-of-commies-japs/106126/6 "2002-04-29T01:03:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by happyheathen \* > Did’ja REALLY think the military and their friends were going to say, > “Oppps, no more bad guys. We won’t need any more toys, thank you?” > > The USA REQUIRES an enemy. If no one presents itself, we will DECLARE an enemy. > > and we WILL secure every last inch of the pipeline from Kazakhstan to the Arabian Sea Huh. I could’ve _sworn_ I remembered something about people flying passenger airliners into office buildings full of civilians and thousands of people being killed and the whole Manhattan skyline being radically altered in an hour and the Federal government grounding every single non-military aircraft in the U.S. for several days and the President being rushed off to some “undisclosed location” somewhere. But, hey, my very own Congresswoman thinks that maybe that was all just part of The Plot, so what do I know? ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-deja-vue-all-over-again-now-its-arab-terrorists-instead-of-commies-japs/106126/7 "2002-04-29T01:11:57Z")
Note to M.E. - those bad guys have been around for years - or hadn’t you noticed? Why are we spending over $10,000,000,000 on Afghanistan? We could’ve BOUGHT the place for that much. 9/11 - not quite Pearl Harbor, but better than the _Lusitania_ as reasons go. p.s. - since ObL is still out there, does it mean we wasted our money? and please explain bushy’s problem w/ Saddam? Afraid he might acheive military parity w/Israel? ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-deja-vue-all-over-again-now-its-arab-terrorists-instead-of-commies-japs/106126/8 "2002-04-29T01:18:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lenin \* > \*\*Were there [Communist Action Figures](http://www.herobuilders.com/osblowbinlad1.html) in your time? > > [sub]_fixed coding_[/sub] \*\* You’d think that they could come up with a better name for it than “The Dirty Terrorist.” Why not something catchy like “Jihad Joe”? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-deja-vue-all-over-again-now-its-arab-terrorists-instead-of-commies-japs/106126/9 "2002-04-29T01:26:48Z")
> [@](#): > > those bad guys have been around for years - or hadn’t you noticed? And we had U.N. sanctions on them for years, and we even lobbed cruise missiles at them a few times. Then came the aforementioned terrorist attacks and mass murder of Americans citizens and foreign guests on American soil. They upped the stakes, and now so are we. > [@](#): > > Why are we spending over $10,000,000,000 on Afghanistan? > > We could’ve BOUGHT the place for that much. Gee, I didn’t think the Taliban had put it up for sale. Not sure where you got that figure from or what it refers to. Personally, I think we need to spend _more_ money “buying” Afghanistan, something the current administration seems reluctant to do. Not letting Afghanistan slide back into being a hellhole is not only the Right Thing To Do, it’s also a necessary step to keep it from being used as a base for future attacks by the kind of fanatics hellholes breed. > [@](#): > > 9/11 - not quite Pearl Harbor, but better than the _Lusitania_ as reasons go. :rolleyes: > [@](#): > > p.s. - since ObL is still out there, does it mean we wasted our money? You’ll note we are continuing to spend money to correct that problem. > [@](#): > > and please explain bushy’s problem w/ Saddam? Afraid he might acheive military parity w/Israel? I think the current campaign of saber-rattling against Iraq is a separate matter from the war against Al-Qaeda (despite the administration’s attempts at “linkage”). Of course this entire exchange probably belongs in my bailiwick, not over here in MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2002, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-deja-vue-all-over-again-now-its-arab-terrorists-instead-of-commies-japs/106126/10 "2002-04-29T01:38:31Z")
The Taliban was ALWAY ‘for sale’ - remember the $42,000,000 for halting opium? The Europeans wanted to use $ to extract ObL, but Super Twit had low numbers, so went to war. Me? I’d have nuked (30 megaton, single warhead) Kabul and Kandahar - and then see if anyone wanted to up the stakes. As it it, we have spent the bucks (per Wash. Post, I believe) to restore the pre-Taliban set-up of warlords - just like 1996. nice. :rolleyes: but, hey, Twit’s ratings are up… ah, land wars in Asia - next up: Philippines - you know, just east of 'Nam…