Secret prisons, the EU, and a very strong warning | 33 comments (33 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

To be fair (none / 1)

This is not a troll, it's just an ignorant, scared person. It's a very common mindset, to think that toughness will make you invulnerable. It's also a mindst that makes terrorism a bigger problem than it is.

people who are willing to kill themselves are pretty much impossible to stop. It might thus be a good idea to avoid policies that spawn more and more people willing to kill themselves;
again, if we are fighting for our "freedom", the way to do it is probably not to curtail our rights. ("But I a not a terrorist" - yes, but who will you tell if you ever get arrested, because you sat in the bus next to someone who is on a FBI list, or because your phone number is in the addressbook of the neighbor of a terrorist suspect, or....)
terrorism is nothing new around the world, it did not appear out of nowhere on 9/11. A number of countries are leanrt to deal with it, and live with it, without going to war with the whole world (and they are not all pussies).

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Tue Nov 29th, 2005 at 05:58:41 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: To be fair (none / 0)

Jérôme, how can you forget that "law abiding citizens have nothing to worry about"?

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Nov 29th, 2005 at 06:02:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Mindsets (none / 0)

It's a very common mindset, to think that toughness will make you invulnerable.

Isn't that what Bush's 2004 campaign was all about, and the reason people voted for him? "9/11 changed everything, and I'm waging the War on Terror™, which means I'm tough!"

Also, I hate to slam some of my fellow Americans, but the "I'm so badass" attitude isn't just a stereotype (when you're talking about Bush voters, in particular).

It's also a mindset that makes terrorism a bigger problem than it is.

Right - I mean, the Iraq war was all about being "tough" and taking down Saddam. And look what happened: terrorism has INCREASED, in part because of the Iraq war.

by Plutonium Page (page dot vlinders at gmail dot com) on Tue Nov 29th, 2005 at 06:19:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Secret prisons, the EU, and a very strong warning | 33 comments (33 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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