All Bets Are ON

[John Hall]

I do believe that past restraint emboldened the terrorists.  Saddam was
encouraged to try our mettle precisely for this reason, and said so.  I
agree such ideas might not be completely irrational, but they seem to hit
the right cultural buttons over there.


-----Original Message-----
From: fork-admin@xent.com [mailto:fork-admin@xent.com]On Behalf Of
Grlygrl201@aol.com

In a message dated Sat, 9 Mar 2002  2:37:49 PM Eastern Standard Time, Ciamac
Moallemi <ciamac@alum.mit.edu> writes:

>
> On Saturday, March 9, 2002, at 08:15 AM, Grlygrl201@aol.com wrote:
> >
> > Of course, my first reaction was "How the hell did this get leaked?"
> > My second: "Is this responsible reporting?"
>
> Because the administration wanted it leaked, of course. Why else would a
> report on a topic this sensitive have large unclassified portions.  It
> fits perfectly into the "crazier than thou" theory of US foreign policy

I'll buy that, and I'll even pay too much for it.  I don't believe, however,
that our failure to punish the murderers of Americans emboldened anyone to
attack us.  That INDIVIDUALS perpetrated the act means only that individuals
did what no COUNTRY would dare.  This was, after all, a suicide mission.