A Plea

[Squishy]

I was recently involved (as is my habit) in a long flame-squabble on another board about--of all things--the use of racial slurs and jingoism in comic books published during WWII. The discussion, naturally, grew to include every action taken by any group involved, including the internment and abuse of American citizens of Japanese ancestry. (Note: not a single person debating the topic condemned our military forces or the citizens involved at the time, but rather the unfortunate philosophies that lead to tragedy then and today.)

One poster repeatedly attempted to squelch all discussion by declaring that anyone who wasn't involved in WWII (and opposed his viewpoint, natch) was disqualified from the topic. In his view, any action taken by the US or its people, no matter how ill-conceived it turned out to be, was justified because: it was war.

And now here we are, at war again. It may not be declared for a time--or like the Vietnam "conflict," not at all--but we are there, barring miraculous intervention of fate.

What shall be justified now?

While it remains a sad fact of war that civilians will be killed in large numbers in order to defeat a small handful of men, and that we will once again commit acts, by intent or by misfortune, that we may some day regret, I pray that we will not repeat the jingoistic hysteria that gripped our nation to varying degrees in every conflict of the last century.

My apartment manager is a short, thin little man with thick glasses and a huge scar from a bypass operation. He is a very nice man, and no threat to anyone. Yet I worry about him, his wife, and his three daughters because he is from the Middle East, and our population is filled with cowards of extremely low intelligence who might do him and his loved ones harm in a display of "patriotism."

Our government may be inclined to do likewise--although they would not target him directly--in order to appease these cowards and other fools. If it has happened before, it can happen again.

Please do not join the ranks of these people, or allow yourself to be swept up by their fevor, or stand idly by when they do their dirty work.

I look forward to the day when Osamu Bin Laden and his men pay for their crimes.

I will rejoice when we finally take control of our own government, and begin to create foreign policy that, in turn, no longer creates enemies like Osamu Bin Laden.

I dread the day someone I care about dies violently because of nothing more than their heritage.

I hope I'm overreacting to the heartwrenching events of the past twenty-four hours, and being unnecessarily paranoid about my fellow Americans.

Peace be with you all.
_________________________

"Evil triumphs when good men do nothing."

[me]

"While it remains a sad fact of war that civilians will be killed in large numbers in order to defeat a small handful of men, and that we will once again commit acts, by intent or by misfortune, that we may some day regret, I pray that we will not repeat the jingoistic hysteria that gripped our nation to varying degrees in every conflict of the last century."

i found it extremely disturbing to see afghanistan civilians dancing in celebration after todays events... and find it very hard to consider them innocent bystandards. of course, there will always be innocent people killed during times of war- but there are more people involved in this than just a "small handful of men."

[Squishy]

Me wrote:

"I found it extremely disturbing to see Afghanistan civilians dancing in celebration after todays events... and find it very hard to consider them innocent bystandards. of course, there will always be innocent people killed during times of war- but there are more people involved in this than just a "small handful of men."

I've seen American people laugh and giggle at video of an Iraqi soldier during the Gulf War, unarmed, half-dressed, and fleeing for cover, being blown up. These people--American or Afghan--weren't being saints, but they didn't commit any crime.

(You might come to realize that many people around the world have fairly understandable reasons for hating our guts; others are simply just as entertained by our deaths on the TV news, as some of us are by theirs. It doesn't justify what has been done in New York and Washington, but what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.)

Either way, what Joe Blow does in Afghanistan has no bearing whatsoever on how Americans should treat each other, which was my point.

Also, "handful" is a relative term. We are after the leaders, not the foot soldiers. (Well, we should be. Actions speak louder than rhetoric.)

More to the point, I have heard reports of "ethnic-looking" taxi drivers and businessmen in the New York area being assaulted in "retaliation" for the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. I have no doubt that in the next few weeks this kind of stupidity with occur with sad regularity.

We are supposed to be better than that.
___________________________________

Side Note:

Knives? KNIVES?

Two safety features that airline pilots have waged war against--secure cockpit doors and cockpit cameras--might have saved thousands of lives, yesterday and many times in the past several years, or at least confirmed what went wrong. Write your Congressman and get others to do the same: passengers and people on the ground are more important than the "Mile High Club."

[Derrick]

Secure cockpit doors don't mean much on a hi-jacked airplane. A terrorrist would just kill someone every minute until you let him in.  And even though they would've died either way, I can't expect anyone to sit locked behind a 'secure door' while everyone on the plane is stabbed to death.

The cockpit pit camera is a good idea.  they could continually broadcast to satellites. They have satellites for tracking all planes with GPS. Admittedly, a camera does send much more data than is sent for GPS, but satellites dedicated for recieving images from airline cockpit would take in less data the GPS satellites recieve.

[Squishy]

Kill someone every minute? Two guys with boxcutters? Are we sheep?

Maybe we are. Perhaps it's too soon, but according to reports from a passenger aboard one of the planes with a cel phone, the entire crew and all passengers were herded into the back of the plane...by two guys with boxcutters.

Now everyone on each plane IS dead. So are hundreds, maybe thousands, on the ground.

If you can't get through the door, you can't control the plane. It's that simple.

[Flangepart]

Had they tried that stuff with a S.E.A.L, those scum would likely have eaten those knives them selves, forceably. Time for the return of the "Air Marshalls?" I agree with Squishy, we have to control our anger, and make wise use of it. Don't let your anger make ya' stupid. Deal with the guilty , and accept that you can't force people to love you, and your nation, with raw power. We should be better then that. We have an excellant case for killing those responsable. Make that case, and work on our allies humanity for support, and our enemies pragmatisim, to get justice....as much as possable, anyway.......done. The leaders of these groups want to keep on happily plotting, and let others bit the bullit. Don't let the snake keep its head. But, lets not become like the monsters we hate.

[Chadzilla]

It is hard to understand just what we all would do in situations such as these.  Part of us believes that no human being is capable of such an atrocity, despite periodic reminders of just such capabilites being shown on the news (i.e. suicide bombers and such).  I have begun to hear rumors that the reason one plane went down in an unpopulated area was that a select group of passengers decided to fight the hijackers.

However I do remember law enforcement groups and such saying that in moments such as these we should not fight back and risk further injury to the other hostages.  I think that will change now.

If I were a pilot I don't know if I would be able to sit and let my crew and passengers die behind a locked door, but why weren't alarms sounded and warning messages sent.  We got caught with a our pants down and our members hanging in the wind.  Times have to change a bit, we are not immune.

And please do not take out you anger on fellow citizens.  Terrorizing and harming people that have nothing to do with these actions at all makes you no different from those terrorist that plotted and carried out these horrible events.

[Kurt]

A guy here at work offered a better solution that takes absolutely no effort.  A "panic" button that fries the controls and locks the plane onto autopilot to land at the nearest airport.

It isn't going to happen too often, so air traffic can handle the airspace clearing, and of course it is more dangerous than having a real pilot at the controls, but what good is a hijacked plane if nobody, even a pilot, can control it?

[AndyC]

I didn't think autopilot could land a plane.

[Flangepart]

Actualy, AndyC, they do it all the time. Its an autolock with the Instrament Landing System used for Zero Visibility, and the auto pilot. The Pilot watches the controls, and if there is deveation from the normal approach peremiters, he can override it, and if need be, get a manual talk down by radio, from the tower. The current sysrems are quite good.

[Chadzilla]

That tele-movie, about a cockpit fried by lightning, used that as a plot device.  Worked better than Karen Black.

[Lester1/2Jr.]

If I see any of those motherf**kers partying in the streets, I'm wildin' ! I don't give a f**k

[El Chupacabra]

Squishy, I hear ya... there are many people
from the middle east in my part of L.A.,
and my boss is Persian.  Me, I don't know
what attitudes will be like now, or how
we're going to react to this on an
international level.  I just hope that
cooler heads will prevail in each case.

[Chadzilla]

I have heard several grumbling callers on conservative radio programs and news stations requesting that holding camps and mass expulsions from the country be instituted asap.  Disgusting.

[Steve.]

Flange put it perfectly - cut off the snake's head - turn the Order Of Assassins' (medieval Muslim sect - the first practitioners of terrorism) belief  that "a body cannot function without a head" right back on themselves. I believe the head of this snake is the Taliban government of Afghanistan, but a distinction has to be made between them and the vast majority of Afghan citizens who are suffering terribly under an inhuman and barbaric regime.