Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> wrote :

On Wed, Sep 12, 2001 at 06:00:46PM +0200, Nomen Nescio wrote:

...

Some terrorists have exactly this as their goal. They are hoping to trigger a counter-reaction, an over-reaction, by the authorities. They want to see a crackdown on liberties, a police state. This will weaken the enemy and demoralize him. It will increase hostility and make the population less willing to support the government.

This is nonsense. I suspect the bin Laden want the U.S. to stop handing Israel billions of dollars a year in aid and weapons. Not bombing pharmecutical plants and lifting an embargo that kills hundreds of thousands (allegedly) of Iraqi women and children might be a nice move too.

-Declan

What they want is not what they will get. The US will be more united in aiding Israel, bombing industrial ( and other ) targets and starting new embargoes. Not only that, the approval of other nations will be more easily garnered. As dramatic as yesterday was, it was a poor move. Mike I still feel sad when I remember the videotapes of perfectly good B-52's being chopped.