This is my nightmare scenario--the bomb, in Manhattan. (It's always Manhattan. I don't even worry about Boston, where I live. Bin Laden wants to kill as many of us as possible, and that means population density, and Manhattan is 3-4 times as dense as San Francisco, 5 times as Boston, 6-7 times as Chicago and D.C., 10 times as L.A., 20 times as Atlanta and Houston.) Has been all along. I've taken classes where they show the maps of the blast zones, and it is almost impossible to detonate a bomb in Manhattan without killing someone I can't imagine losing.
It's not really to make Bin Laden sleep easier--he announced in 1998 that he planned to murder at least 4 million Americans including 1 million children. He'd almost have to use nukes to start to run up to those numbers.
What I find alarming is that he may be taking the next steps, of getting political and religious cover for this move. (It having occurred to some people that he is NOT ACTUALLY A CLERIC, though he wasn't shy about issuing fatwas before.)
Bush has done fuck all to prevent it. His non-proliferation policy is flatly inexplicable. I think he's just bored by it; I have no better explanation.
I've got a number of world events books on my christmas reading list, but until then, could anyone give me some help with a question that's been bugging me. The justification for using a nuclear weapon against the US is that they would simply be evening the score, correct? Osams accuses the US of being responsible for killing X number of muslims worldwide, therefore he is within his rights to kill X number of Americans. Now, forgetting for the moment that this is a terribly stupid argument, I'm assuming there's probably a grain of truth to this? Though I suspect Osama is over-emphasizing America's involvement and culpability, is there nevertheless a good rundown of what actions he considers so heinous and why he blames the US for them?
Jesus.
This is my nightmare scenario--the bomb, in Manhattan. (It's always Manhattan. I don't even worry about Boston, where I live. Bin Laden wants to kill as many of us as possible, and that means population density, and Manhattan is 3-4 times as dense as San Francisco, 5 times as Boston, 6-7 times as Chicago and D.C., 10 times as L.A., 20 times as Atlanta and Houston.) Has been all along. I've taken classes where they show the maps of the blast zones, and it is almost impossible to detonate a bomb in Manhattan without killing someone I can't imagine losing.
It's not really to make Bin Laden sleep easier--he announced in 1998 that he planned to murder at least 4 million Americans including 1 million children. He'd almost have to use nukes to start to run up to those numbers.
What I find alarming is that he may be taking the next steps, of getting political and religious cover for this move. (It having occurred to some people that he is NOT ACTUALLY A CLERIC, though he wasn't shy about issuing fatwas before.)
Bush has done fuck all to prevent it. His non-proliferation policy is flatly inexplicable. I think he's just bored by it; I have no better explanation.
Posted by Katherine | Link to this comment | 11-13-04 2:35 AM
I've got a number of world events books on my christmas reading list, but until then, could anyone give me some help with a question that's been bugging me. The justification for using a nuclear weapon against the US is that they would simply be evening the score, correct? Osams accuses the US of being responsible for killing X number of muslims worldwide, therefore he is within his rights to kill X number of Americans. Now, forgetting for the moment that this is a terribly stupid argument, I'm assuming there's probably a grain of truth to this? Though I suspect Osama is over-emphasizing America's involvement and culpability, is there nevertheless a good rundown of what actions he considers so heinous and why he blames the US for them?
Posted by Michael | Link to this comment | 11-13-04 3:41 PM