-- James A. Donald:
McViegh did not target innocents. Bin Laden did target innocents.
Roy M. Silvernail
I'm confused. Is Mr. Donald saying McVeigh did not surveil his target sufficiently to know that there was a day care center in the damage pattern?
Bin Laden's intent was to make anyone in America afraid - thus the use of airliners, rather than truck bombs. McViegh's intent was to make BATF afraid. Analogously, in Iraq, the murder of schoolchildren for accepting candy from Americans, the use of children as human shields. If group A, acting as an organized cohesive entity with single central will, makes people belonging to group B rationally afraid by violent and evil acts, and someone in group B strikes back at group A in order to make group A afraid to do wrong, this is not terrorism, even if innocents happen to get in the way. If instead he goes after the guy who washes the windows for someone in group A, and the friend of the little sister in someone in group A, and the child who smiled at someone in group A, this is terrorism. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG 9z/D+14dhYWqJz3LanaRzjhsYSdPrA+GrFSJrVNJ 4lnTkcOSZD+o/0b5hjEfABYlF305Ice+SWzVDUsTs