Scott en Aztlán wrote:
> On Mon, 25 Apr 2005 01:24:20 GMT, Arif Khokar >
> wrote:

>>>How is Al Qaida blowing up the WTC any different than the guy who
>>>parked his Jeep across the Metrolink tracks and got out to watch the
>>>derailment?

>>The former took a lot more planning and the motives were made public
>>years before the actual event.

> So killing innocent people is OK as long as you plan it well and
> announce it publicly in advance?

I was pointing out the difference between the two categories of actions
that lead to the same result (abeit on differing scales). Your
interpretation is incorrect.

> Is the Oklahoma City bombing our fault, too, because our government
> burned down a Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas?

The government could have handled it much better than it did. Perhaps
they should have considered the consequences rather than saying "oh
well, **** happens."

> Killers are
> very good at rationalizing what they do - something which appears to
> have escaped our notice.

Unfortunately, we're not talking about individual killers. We're
talking about substantial organizations that are formed based on certain
ongoing events, policies, etc. These organizations do make an effort to
explain their rationale. Understanding their rationale along with
adjusting our tactics to take that into account will be far more
effective than just ignoring it or trying to address the symptom (not
the cause) and hoping they'll go away.

> You're really naive if you think that removing a military base from
> Saudi Arabia is going to stop these scum from hating us.

People don't just hate other people for no reason.

> They'll just trump up some other excuse and attack us again.

They don't have to trump up another excuse. They can use the same one
over and over since we really haven't changed anything.