A refreshing, realistic view on terrorism and the so called security theater...

[goldorak]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Because the terrorism as seen on 9/11 does not compare to that we have seen in germany and italy, or still see in the Bask province. That was my point, goldorak: that djihad adds a new qualitative and quantitative dimension to the game.

Let me ask you, if the buildings had not collapsed, would you have had a different view on the events of 9/11 ? For me no (and to be honest I was just as emotional as anybody else seeing those towers collapse), but you cannot act emotional when dealing with such matters. Because you loose sight of what is important and what the terrorists want.

On the terror examples you gave, I completely agree with you. Where we disagree is that you do not differ between past examples of terrorism in europe (RAF, ETA etc), and today's djihad and Al Quaeda, while I do. Where then we agree in our disagreeing again is that even djihad for the most (not completely) gets best tackled not by war operations, but solid police work, intelligence infiltration, counter terrorism operations. that can - and miust - include hitech options, but these should not be understood to be capable to replace HUMINT capabilities.

We do not agree because for me there is no difference between basque, or islamic terrorism or any other kind of terrorism. There is no fundamental difference. The acts they perpetrate are done to change what they consider to be a political status quo. We can debate wether making a car explode or putting a bomb in a pub, or cutting the throat of some poor sob is worse or less worse than putting a bomb on a plane, and on an emotional level yes there is a difference (the same difference between someone being hanged and someone being shot, in the end they are still being killed) but the point is that these acts are not done because, they are perpetrated to induce a change in policy. And the terrorists win each and every time we change the rules of your society to respond to this threat. You cannot protect from terrorism and you cannot wage war on terrorism as if it were some kind of well defined nation, it is not possibile.
Those that think the contrary are living in the cloud, or have just smoked a ton load of weed.