TURN ON THE NEWS!

[Phoenix]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Styro@Mother's:
Chat Call.

www.magicstar.net
#LUGtrek
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To any late comers follow please

[C5]

Oh no, no, NO!!! Please make it stop, tell me it's all a nightmare!

The TV is showing pictures of people celebrating in Palestine.

I feel like crying, and yet I am a few thousands kilometers away of all this and know no one involved.

I wish I was a believer so I could pray.

[Dan Gurden]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by mactavish:
I've just heard that the UK is on high alert now as well... true?

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Cant chat, works firewall gets in the way.

I CAN Confirm that the UK Armed forces are at equal readiness than during the gulf war, regulars are preparing for mobilisation and the Territorials are on 24 hour mobilisation alert.

Thats from my army friends.

They also tell me that NORAD has gone to DefCon2, please tell me this isn't true... Im leaving the office now, I may visit my family tonight...

DanG

[Captain Blake]

Apparently, every plane that has gone down was a hijacked airliner. That's the two to the WTC, the at least one in the Pentagon, the one attacking Camp David, and perhaps the missing plane.

According to ABC news, the "missing plane" is missing. Nobody's confirmed that it's been hijacked, yet.

I really hope that the Palestinians weren't behind this. There will be some serious bloodshed if they were.

As a note, their evacuating all the Federal Centers in TN, and the Red Cross has just asked for blood donations.

Alex

[Capt.Hunter]

Our rapid disaster response teams are also geared up and ready to get to the States ASAP if needed. A Palestinian group is indeed said to have claimed responsibility, but please don't take on the whole country for this. US sanctions after the Gulf didn't hurt the people responsible for the war, but did create vast resentment towards the States among the innocent majority of the population. Find the group who did it and leave them in little pieces as a warning (and just hope they don't wind up as being seen as martyrs).

DefCon 2?! Please tell me that's not the one right down from Nuke Time? Oh shit this is getting worse...

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"Spatial anomalies, energy beings, telepathic echoes. You know, sometimes I really miss the Dominion War. At least then all we had to worry about was where the next polaron beam was coming from...": Capt.Hunter, USS Tempest

[Eric R.]

My Mother who is a State Worker here in PA is home, they evacuated all State buildings. I am sue that soon the schools will start to close.

[Aldaron]

Well, I propose a moratorium on philosophical dissection and introspection for at least 24 hours on this.

I reckon our American friends need a chance to blow off some steam and say whatever they like...

Vent away, my Yank friends - you have my thoughts and my sympathy. I just hope this doesn't blow up in all our faces.

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"Every atom in our bodies was forged in the furnace of ancient stars - it is our destiny to return home..."

[mactavish]

I just heard that there are still at least 4 hijacked aircraft still "unaccounted for."

[Angry_Cartman]

Hi everone;
I'm what you call a "passive" member here sort of... I've been following the boards for a few years but only posted a few times with different accounts (this time I'm writing DOWN the password!!)... Anyways...

I find it strange that within all the turmoil I turn to these boards to check out others'opinions... even for matters which have nothing to do with sci-fi or rpgs.

Well first of all, we know next to nothing. I remember back in 1995 I was watching CNN casually when they announced that the Oklahoma fed building was bombed. Within the hour lots of people started blaming arabs... turns out that they had nothing to do with what happened... (although I don't buy for a minute the McVey story...)

Let's not rush things here... You people need to secure your assets, regroup and tighten up. You'll think about retaliation later.

So far, everyone points the finger at the palestinians... Well makes sense right? They are being oppressed by Israel... and who is by far the biggest backer of Israel? The United States. Israel has tighter security, and hitting the US would have more impact anyways, so the US would be a logical choice...
except...

What next? What is the point of hitting government and civilian targets and causing mass suffering? Revenge? Maybe... But what will be the effect? The American public, like the rest of Western nations have become complascent (sp?), weak, soft, even decadent in some areas (just look at the trash being shown on the telly...), so maybe those terrorists thought they could strike the US and only get a slap on the wrist in return.

Did they want to push the US public to pressure the American govt in pulling out of mideast affairs? Unlikely, the US IS weak (sorry my American friends... but you make take sollace into the fact that if the US is weak than Canada is totally gay), but even there I don't think they would have bowed to that kind of pressure...

What if now instead they have awakened a sense of collective rage in the US public? What do they gain from this? If in the past the US public mildly condemned Israel for its treatment of the Palestinian population, now it will scream bloody murder and take a "let them die" attitude? What if NOW no-one cares if Israel exterimnate the arabs?

Who does it benefit? The Palestinians? I wouldn't think so... but I know that somewhere a group of people must be quite happy because now they'll be able to do whatever they want, as ugly as it might be.

I dunno, just a theory... I just can't see the logic in having the Arabs attack the US just for "revenge" or to "hurt" the US... seems almost childish... but then again!

Well again, we don't have all the facts (will we ever?) so it's no time for wild speculations; we need to overcome our desire for retribution and focus on improving our security and then investigate. It won't be easy and it will take time.

As for retribution...

What do you want to do? Nuke the Mideast? Strike which country? Iran, Syria, Iraq? What then? You'll also contaminate (and thus punish along) Israel or Turkey, thus invloving countries that may have NOTHING to do with this? Bomb cities by conventional means? To what end? Will you really punish the terrorists that way? And then again, the question is, were those terrorists backed by a particular country? If so, then it could be an act of war and then the US could declare war... but what if we're dealing with a trans-national terrorist group?

I'll bet that whoever did this will only get a slap on the wrist; Western nations nowadays are too weak to stomach handing out real punishments to its enemies (just think for instance what Nazi Germany would have done to whoever did this...)

My personnal wish of course, would be to make the bastards pay. Whoever it is...

[Phoenix]

ok, one mile from NORAD, we are not on DEFCON any thing to my knowledge, we are at ThreatCON Charly (DEFCON 1=peace, 5=All out war by the way) I don't know what the ThreatCON top end is, however.

The thing is this could have happened in my back yard...Air Force Academy, NORAD, 4 other major military bases within 10 miles of my house...

Phoenix...

[Phoenix]

Threat CON Charly one below top Delta...correction we are now at Delta...max national security...god help us all

Phoenix...

[This message has been edited by Phoenix (edited 09-11-2001).]

[Capt.Hunter]

Just heard here that 3 planes are still unaccounted for. Thanks for clearing up the DefCon scale by the way - I was a tad worried there. Arafat has just been on the radio here condemning the attack. I agree with Angry Cartman though, you want to be very sure that when you come down like the Sword of Damocles on these bastards (which I fully support you in doing) you've got the right people. Let it cool - remember what Klingons say about revenge. I'm not even there, and I want to find these people and rip their throats out, but right now I don't even know for sure who they are. Yeah, there are a number of likely suspects, but let's figure this through when the terror's over.

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"Spatial anomalies, energy beings, telepathic echoes. You know, sometimes I really miss the Dominion War. At least then all we had to worry about was where the next polaron beam was coming from...": Capt.Hunter, USS Tempest

[Phoenix]

The news is compairing this to Peirl Horbor now...A day of infamy...there WILL be hell to pay!

Phoenix...thinking much clearer now

[Kaiddin]

Just heard that Canadian Forces Bases are on "Heightened" alert.

[C5]

I agree too - as revolting as it may seem, we have to wait until we are sure who is behind this before dismembering the bastards.

The worst that could happen would be a random retaliation, falling on innocent people. Then the beings behind this monstrosity (sp?) would have won twice.

We have to keep a clear head (however angry we may be), because random rage is exactly the state of mind these animals wanted us to be in.

We can and must claim revenge (I'm still speaking for humanity at large, not only americans) and not let whoever is responsible for that get away with a tap on the wrist - but we simply can't point anyone yet, until the culprit has been formerly identified.

Now, I wouldn't blame anyone anymore for yelling his need for revenge - we all yell when we are wounded.