Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gopher]

Nice summary of the issues with NPR's usual balanced and dispassionate analysis -- and with a conclusion I can and do support...

[mindmetoo]

I've felt Americans are safer in that if you want to kill an American, you don't have to try and slip into the USA. You just cross the border into Iraq and you can test your mettle against a prime American buck... a GI or a Marine. Anyone can pick off a New York office worker. Bush has accomplished in turning Iraq into a game ranch for yankee bucks. I wouldn't be surprised if there are jihadist tourist packages in place through out much of the muslim world.

What we're seeing in the UK isn't jihadists trying to enter the UK but disaffected muslim youth not being part of the al qaeda as an organization but as a broad cultural movement and a philosophy.

It's anyone guess how long before American Muslims rise up.

[Ya-ta Boy]

In the spring of '86 I was making plans for my first trip out of the US. Some terrorist thing happened (Achille Lauro?), and I decided Europe was not a good bet and rerouted myself to Tahiti and New Zealand.

I felt far more threatened when the primary targets were ships and planes because I was planning on using those forms of transportation. I never felt the threat of a jet plane crashing into a major building--I don't live in New York or Washington (or London or Madrid, for that matter).

Even at the time of 9/11 I felt the claim that 'everything changed' was hype. It had been clear for some time that the terrorist threat had escalated beyond passenger airplanes when the Cole and the 2 embassies in Africa were attacked. I was prepared for the necessity of higher taxes and a larger military. It seemed suspicious when all we got were the Patriot Act and Orange Alerts. And an unrelated war. (I didn't buy Powell's pitch at the UN.)

Do I feel safer? No, I feel poorly served by the politicians and media and frustrated at the politics of fear.

[Wangja]

Do I feel safer? No. But I never felt unsafe either.

(BTW, someone posted on another thread that last year 55 Americans were killed by terrorism: in the same period, 43,000 were killed on the roads and 30,000 were shot dead in USA. Perspective.)

[dulouz]

[Nowhere Man]

In a hacking at the branches sense, probably yes.

In a dealing with the roots sense, no.

I feel what we've done is essentially like buying 3 deadbolts for all your house doors, setting up a metal detector in the parlour, and spraypainting the windows black to be "safer".

That may be safe, but it's not how I want to live.

Moreover, suppose after all that, you head up to the attic window with a high-powered rifle and continue shooting at the enemy.

Is it safer?

Is that the right question?

How about, are we closer to an end of "this"?

It doesn't seem so.

[dulouz]

[Nowhere Man]

Actually, the Irish thread does give some idea of how this might happen.

I'm not saying it's easy or will come about in anything remotely close to the short-term.

And how about this:

I'll shoot myself in the head with a deer slug if you reduce your trolling by 50%.

Again, I'm not saying it's easy or will come about in anything remotely close to the short-term.

But you could start by answering both questions:

Are we safer?

Are we closer to an end of "this"?

[Wangja]

[dulouz]

[Nowhere Man]

That's not what I said.

Which suggests that you can't.

[Gopher]

Dulouz: please get off this thread.

If we have to moderate our own threads, fine. You are not contributing anything worth anyone's time here. Go away, please.

[mithridates]

[bucheon bum]

[Gopher]