Is WWIII on the horizon?

[Badjim]

God help us all if it is!!

But with WHO??

[ 09-11-2001: Message edited by: Badjim ]

[Voss]

My first thought was about the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of people who have lost their lives today. I hope and pray that this does not escalate into the loss of MILLIONS of lives, indeed even BILLIONS of lives. The last thing any of us needs is a nuclear attack of any sort.

Surely, we have all seen this coming. Unfortunately, the last administration has made us weaker than we need to be right now. Worse, I don't think it is over yet. This has been a very organized and well timed attack through terroristic means. They have learned how we approach such events, and will probably modify their techniques for any future event. This is one thing about CNN and the like that really pains me.

I believe this attack to have been brought about by fundamentalist Islams. The religion of Islam teaches that killing the infidel will guarantee a place in heaven. To that end these terrorists will go to any length in destroying the heart of the infidel (which they see as being the U.S.). Unfortunately, the head of the terrorist organization has gone to some considerable preparations in his approach today. He has intended to bring about calamity upon us by destroying our means of commerce. The attack upon the Pentagon was simply ignorant. The result of their aims in bringing down our ability to organize the military cannot be assured in this method. But, let's not feed into the media mentality by telling them HOW to do any such thing.

Let us, please, take the measures necessary to prevent such occurances in the future, and then take the time to hunt down those responsible, and then take their desert butts to a very cold place for all eternity.

The last thing we need is an escalation into WWIII.

[Wlfgng]

The last thing we need is to allow this kind of terrorism to continue un-abated.

Letting Saddam 'go' was a mistake.

[Dowding]

So just hours after the attack, it has been proved to be Iraq? Don't jump to conclusions.

 

The religion of Islam teaches that killing the infidel will guarantee a place in heaven.

But not all Muslims are fundamentalist (i.e. Shi'ite), and 90% are 'Sunni'. What exactly is the 'infidel' is left to interpretation.

[Badjim]

Think dowding doesn't want to find the people responseible.

[Urchin]

No, and this is a rather foolish train of thought.  So lets say it was Ira, or Syria, or Afghanistan that put together these attacks instead of a terrorist group.  I personally think it was a terrorist group, and not a nation-state, but lets assume it was another nation-state that attacked the U.S.A.

First off, it is suicide.  We aren't anywhere near as strong militarily as we were say 10-15 years ago, but we are still more than strong enough to go to war with all of the countries in the Middle East and win.  And even if we were to conquer the Middle East, it would not solve the terrorism problem.  Terrorism, by definition, is not an attack by a government on another government.  That is called war.

Now, if we DO go to war, I'll go sign up for the Army the day it happens.  Because if we declare war on a country for this attack, that pins the blame for it on the ENTIRE country, and I'll be looking for a little vengeance.  But I don't believe that any COUNTRY had anything to do with this attack.  It was a group of terrorists that did it- a very well organized group of terrorists, but still just a group of people.

The U.S.A. really has no means to bring whoever did this to justice by traditional means- it is not like Pearl Harbor.  This will either be an operation for special forces in the military, or police forces around the world, and there will be court cases where the perpetrators are tried for the crimes.

[CavemanJ]

I don't think this is gonna start WWIII.

I think the group that perpetrated this has just stepped on the old crank with a pair of golf shoes though.  I know I'll be watching for the retal on the bastards.

I think Voss is right about the fundamentalist Islams.  One of the reports I heard on the radio on my home to watch the news mentioned one of the better known terrorists (Benladin (sp?)) and said he was quoted in an arabic paper a few weeks ago saying something about an unprecedented attack.

MSNBC is now saying Benladin's group is the only one capable of pulling this off.

It's time for politcal correctness to be damned.  When they catch the bastards they need to skin'em and boil'em alive (or something similarly horrible) on live tv and make a serious example of them.  I like Jack Ryan's response in Tom Clancy's novel Executive Orders.  Let the bastards watch themselves on CNN from the picture from the mule guiding the bombs onto thier heads.

[Wlfgng]

I agree.. a serious example.

but only after we are SURE we have the right ones and not just some imagined revenge.

[LePaul]

I dont think the world is in such a fragile state that this will evolve into WW3.  Unlike WWI, that snowballed into an all out war after an assassination, we aren't that shakey.  But, we've learned a hard lesson, there are Anti-American groups out there....and so far, its been us tossing a few Tomahawks at them from a few hundred miles away.  Well, now its in our face.  Its Pearl Harbor all over again.

What from here?  Who knows, but don't let your emotions rule you.  Investigate, dig up the facts and then pound the crap out of the people/groups that did this.  No more half answers, these people brought the fight to our doorstep and killed hundreds, maybe more.  

I'm all for the marines going for a nice mission to pluck Mr Bin Laden...but, be aware there are others like him that are not exactly our friends either.

Hang in there, guys, we'll find out who did this in short order.