In the past few hours, just about every single country on this planet, including Afghanistan and Palestine, issued outraged statements condemning whoever did this. Cuba - FIDEL FUCKING CASTRO! offered to send medical aid!
After this, what country is going to harbor these guys? I foresee roving death squads looking for the perpetrators. I’m willing to bet hard cash that if a foreign group is responsible, they will die in or near their homeland at the hands of their countrymen or their neighbors.
I bet even Afghanistan would throw their asses out. The Taliban is more into concentration-camp tactics and large-scale repression. Flying planes into buildings doesn’t strike me as their style.
Keep in mind, as sincere as much of that comdemnation surely is, I should think some nations would want to absolve themselves of possibly involvement. Especially since, as you said, almost every nation on earth has publicly condemned the terrorist attack.
Many people I interacted with today were calling for war. Admittedly, we were all quite upset, but that’s the atmosphere in my area, Cary, NC.
Of course they are “officially” condemning this action – doesn’t mean squat. As I write this, report is coming over my t.v. of something (bombings?) happening in Afganistan. Stand by…you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
P.S. - Cuba’s response doesn’t surprise me - rather encouraging actually – Castro’s not going to be in power much longer - no USSR to back them up; Castro wants to normalize relations with us; knows it’s in his best interests to befriend the U.S.
I hate to say it, but the terrorists have not shot themselves in the foot. They’ve done what every backyard terrorist and anti-government gun nut wants to do: destroy vital structures, cause chaos, kill thousands. Their attack was brillaint, well-planned, and an utter suprise, no a shock to every decent person in the world.
I only hope these terrorists bumble, and their brilliance ends in prison.
An earlier news article on the BBC’s website (describing British support in earlier US retaliation for terrorist acts) mentioned that the strikes on Libya in 1986 (?) did kill a female relative of Qadaffi.
Read the OP; your last sentence is saying the same thing, slightly differently. The terrorists have bumbled, by alienating so many powerful nations. Their brilliance may indeed end in prison, if Daowajan’s prediction is accurate: no other country will harbor them, and they will find themselves walled in. Hopefully, when they’re run to earth, they will not have the option of suicide.
I hope that the world works together, but… The current sentiment from Afghanistan: “Show us proof" (cite: cnn.com). I think it will require substantial evidence for a foreign government to hand over someone like Bin Laden. Especially when a terrorist group might retaliate against the government who handed the individual over.