As Bill Maher so eloquently put it: "Its horrible, but this time, let's not overreact, wallow, erect monuments to terrorism; let's handle it Israeli-Munich style" Source: https://twitter.com/billmaher/status/323951293506924544
The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On
111–120 of 219 posts
Re: The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On
#112That is refreshingly sane. Sadly I fear that there will be total overreaction by the government and the media. The only proper reaction is take care of the survivors, bring the responsible to justice and then cry for the dead. Do not assassinate them - bringing them in chains in court is much more humiliating.
"bring the responsible to justice"
Probably the most difficult parts of this will be to define who is responsible and what exactly constitutes as justice.
Re: The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let me offer a different opinion. There was a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993. Thirteen different explosions in the span of a few hours across the city's landmarks. 250 people died. One of the blasts was in the Bombay stock exchange. This was on a Friday, and the stock exchange opened for business on Monday. This was a huge PR win for Mumbai, as the media talked about the resilience of the residents and the m…
That is a reality that I guess I just naively assumed wasn't possible. This bit really kind of shook me. I've always thought of terrorism much like the author and the aforementioned poster you're replying to, a seemingly random and rare event. I'd never thought about what living in a society where it has become common place. I imagine it's a bit like when school shooting sprees line up in the States, each one on the…
That is a reality that I guess I just naively assumed wasn't possible. This bit really kind of shook me. I've always thought of terrorism much like the author and the aforementioned poster you're replying to, a seemingly random and rare event. I'd never thought about what living in a society where it has become common place
Got back and look at the UK in the 70's and 80's during the worst of the Northern Ireland troubles for an example.
There was a period of a couple of years where "suspect device" was a regular reason used for my train being late.
Re: The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On
#114It was a great moment of national pride for me (which are rare in the UK) in the wake of the 7/7/2005 bombings. People were back on the Tube and buses the next day, refusing to allow their lives to be disrupted further. I've always taken solace from those people- I hope that the people of Boston can be equally inspiring.
The British resolve is something that those of us across the pond seem to have lost, or perhaps it is something that was developed in the British people during the terrible days of WW1 and WW2. We here tend to work more of a spirit of freak-outery and cynicism. And as much as it annoys me, I think its more a symptom of how relatively little most of us and our ancestors have had to worry about in the US as much of our…
The British resolve is something that those of us across the pond seem to have lost, or perhaps it is something that was developed in the British people during the terrible days of WW1 and WW2.
Large chunks of the London population would have also lived through the various IRA campaigns in the 70-90s.
One of the thing that seemed darkly humorous to me was that in the aftermath of the July bombings the tube/rail services rolled out the old warning messages used during the IRA campaigns which didn't really apply to suicide bombings (they were all aimed at suspect packages being left somewhere - rather than things being carried / suspect behaviour).
Re: The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was an excellent article by a New Yorker a while back contrasting the response within NYC with that of the rest of the country.
Would love to read that article if you have a link.
I don't know if this is what he was referring to, but I find this article inspirational, about what the NYPD has been doing to fight terrorism, while we New Yorkers continue living our lives. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/07/25/050725fa_fact2
Re: The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
You really think that could bring "The Fall of New Rome"? An attack a hundred times more deadly (which would be something like 3% of NYC's population dead, if my mental math does not betray me, or something a little less than 10x The Blitz.) than 9/11 would be a tragedy with only a few parallels in history. It would be an astronomically staggering blow to our economy. Hell, the mangled remains of the economy after su…
Hell, the mangled remains of the economy after such an attack probably would not even be recognizable as an economy at all... But bring down our society? Starvation or hopelessness tends to erode idealism pretty quickly. You don't need any kind of ridiculous Red Dawn fantasy to appreciate the possibility of critical injury; nor would the fall of an empire be an overnight thing. It's relatively easy to identify strate…
Idealism has nothing to do with it. In the best of times and in the darkest of times, we retain the same society and merely expose different aspects of it. To erradicate a culture requires much more than destroying its economy and starving it.
We have numerous great examples of total societal collapse and eradication. Starvation to the point of extinction can do it on islands with no resources, disease can do it in previously isolated societies with no defense against it, invading armies can do it, and mass immigration and cultural conversion can do it. None of those is adaquate or available to a bunch of redneck bomb-chuckers. Not if they are trying to erradicate a society that spans countries, continents, languages, and armies.
Modern society simply does not face an existential threat from terrorists. They can do a lot of damage sure, but they will not erradicate modern society. If you want to suggest otherwise you are going to have to do better than "a few hundred thousand Americans die, the American government crumbles under the disaster relieve effort, then people start eating each other." I know you guys are really digging that fantasy, but you are delusional if you really think that would pose a threat to the modern global society.
Re: The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On
#117[deleted]
Re: The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On
#118It was a great moment of national pride for me (which are rare in the UK) in the wake of the 7/7/2005 bombings. People were back on the Tube and buses the next day, refusing to allow their lives to be disrupted further. I've always taken solace from those people- I hope that the people of Boston can be equally inspiring.
Let me offer a different opinion. There was a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993. Thirteen different explosions in the span of a few hours across the city's landmarks. 250 people died. One of the blasts was in the Bombay stock exchange. This was on a Friday, and the stock exchange opened for business on Monday. This was a huge PR win for Mumbai, as the media talked about the resilience of the residents and the m…
>>Mumbai still carries on, but there is no pride in doing that anymore.
Not just that.
But think of it this way, most people who are already having hand-to-mouth have no other option but to show up at their jobs next day.
Re: The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On
#119Probably going to get very well down voted for this, but it hasn't stopped me before. It's not through terrorism they beat us. But through politics. Either twisting the minds of the current leaders, or infecting political parties and slowly implementing sharia - happening in Sweden, with our own tax money. Forget gay and female civil rights.
Seivan, I apologize deeply for getting your comment off track, and I hope others will not follow this further from your main point. However, I would just offer a quick point of advice. Don't spend keystrokes saying you might be down-voted for something. It's actually bolder to just say what you're going to say. When you reference downvoting, you stigmatize it and influence people not to do so. I would rather know if…
Or just don't write it at all since expected to be down voted is often a sign of unfounded opinions. In this case there's no indication at this point of this being done by jihadists, which makes the previous comment ignorant at best.
Re: The Boston Marathon Bombing: Keep Calm and Carry On
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What keeps the US relatively free of terrorism is the massive ocean that's between the terrorists and their target. What keeps most countries relatively free from terrorism is that they aren't occupying other peoples land or bombing their women and children all the way to hell. Ever wonder why extremists haven't bombed the Cook Islands or Peru?
"Ever wonder why extremists haven't bombed the Cook Islands" It's nice to be a country like the Cook Islands. You're surrounded by a vast ocean that makes it very difficult to attack. Your interests are also protected other, larger nations, so you don't have to do any "dirty work" to protect them. You also don't have to spend tons of money on a military and can rely on treaties with other countries to provide your de…
You know that before any attack whatsoever, there has to be a motive, right?
South Africa meets your definition of a targetable country. Why isn't it attacked by terrorists?