h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

From what I've heard on the radio, anthrax is not something that can be brewed up or delivered easily, without a lot of money or a lot of expertise. Not something that you could learn off the web or cook up in your basement. To paraphrase, they said something to the effect that this is not a project that could be accomplished by some biochemistry grad student with a grudge.

So it sounds like some government or large group must be involved with the anthrax, though it's all speculation which govt or group really did it.

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Three weeks of bombings...God when is it going to stop??
Just before the strikes, I remember people from the US administration staying that there were only few real targets in Afghanistan (read: only few bombs need to be dropped)
I am seeing some real ugly pics coming out of Afghanistan...with the restrictions on showing these pics by most western governments; I wonder when the public opinion is going to turn against this horrific campaign

Opinion would turn against the bombing campaign faster if anyone came up with something that was a practical alternative (rather than ignore the terrorists and hope they go away).

> "Three weeks of bombings...God when is it going to stop??"

(warning: unconfirmed anecdote - possibly aprocryphal)
Given to me by father, purporting to describe an exchange between an American and Britain at his workplace.


American: This war... dragging on a bit, isn't it? I know Blair said it would be a long conflict, but still, shouldn't they be finishing off by now?
Briton: Ahh, well here in Europe, our standards for war length are a bit different...
American: you mean like World War Two?
Briton: Well, a little... but before then we had the Thirty Years War
*American's eyes boggle*
Briton: ... and before that, there was the Hundred Years War - so you see, when a European talks about a long war, we tend to mean it...
*sound of jaw hitting the floor*

--

MyRedDice - "any similarity to any national stereotypes is purely co-incidental"

> "if anyone came up with something that was a practical alternative"

Negotiation and Diplomacy. I get this feeling that no matter how many times I mention this alternative, some people are still going to carry on like war is the only option. Obviously shooting second and asking questions first isn't "practical"...

There's also the question of whether stirring people up in exactly the same way that created most of the terrorist groups in the first place is really practical anyway...

I'm worried about this too. Anyone who knows anything about Afghanistan knows there's precious little to hit.

It may be that the think they can kill off the Taliban by bombing and who cares about civilians dead. It's not like anyone can do anything to them for it.

It seems that the bombing needs to stop and the ground war needs to begin. Lives of volunteer troops should *not* be placed above those of civilians. The alliance needs to get some morals (and some guts) and fight this war cleanly

Thankyou

From the tone of the reporting it does sound as though things are headed that way at last. The problem with this war is that the enemy, and the friends of the enemy have got a whole country full of innocent people to hide amoungst - there isn't much left there in the way of military targets to bomb, that is obvious from the footage.

I wish diplomacy was an option, but I find it hard to see how you can negotiate with people who would commit suicide attacks.

Kelli
*trying to keep in mind we aren't at war with Afghanistan but with terrorism*

a report in the Sydney morning herald this morning was along the lines of the Taliban moving everyone/thing into the cities as they realise how touchy a subject civilian casualties is.

Earthman,

How about diplomacy, which Taliban seemed amenable to when they began offering concessions about trying bin Laden in another country? Bush has said from the start that there would be no negotiation on any demands, so don't act like he's already tried other alternatives before going straight to war.

Sorry, Lu, you already answered him. I still can't be arsed to read all the backlog and forwardlog before replying to these things, but I'll try to be more careful in the future.

Oh i hate it when i read aposting and then they moderate it and i instantly forget what it said. I'm not sure they're not moderating my mind too.

Maybe technology will soon be able to undermine moderation. In a few years, with enough bandwidth and enough memory, we'll be able to cache large chunks of h2g2 discussions on our computers at home. Then we'll be able to read cached discussions or guide entries still even after bits have been censored from the live site. Then we could set up an unmoderated mirror site, showing only those bits that were censored! (Would they bother to claim copyright infringement if we were only reprinting parts that they had censored?)

Now THAT would be a cool workaround.

I wrote that one. The only thing i can think of is that i mentioned the name of the Sydney newspaper i had read an article in

In that same paper ()i just read that the anthrax sent to the senate building was manufactured in the US...

Now this is getting interesting.

Linus! I mentioned the name of a Danish newspaper I read an article in wich I quoted from,(translated to english), and didn´t get moderated.Is that just bcause it´s a danish newspaper and they couldn´t be bothered to translate it to check it out?
Then I think I have an advantage here

Anyways!!! I´ll ask my question again:
If there´s gonna be another attack on USA,wich I think there will ,what do think it will be?


T´mershi Duween.


"THE ROAD OF EXESS LEADS TO THE PALACE OF WISDOM"

And I can´t remember who said that.

HELP.

Linus - see my questions about moderation earlier... You might try to get that post put back up, or at least reword the content!

All the postal workers are now freaking out and demanding large amounts of Cipro... NOW! I can understand how they feel.

Lentilla, I didn't actually use a direct quote. It was more along the lines of an article i read in xyz paper said something along these lines...

sounds like the moderators have got itchy trigger fingers to me

Next big attack. I don't know anything about the chemistry involved but some sort of attack on a large water supply would be very nasty if feasible.

no worries subcom - if I've mentioned diplomacy once I've mentioned it a hundred times, so another person posting the same won't annoy people any more than I already have...

In other news, the most recent estimates of the death toll from WTC are much lower: only about 3,000 in total. Those using deaths to justify war might want to scale down their war efforts by 40%

> "I wish diplomacy was an option, but I find it hard to see how you can negotiate with people who would commit suicide attacks."

Try asking Britain, who has successfully negotiated with the IRA (who have used suicide bombers). Or try asking Israel, who negotiated a cease-fire with the Palestinians, despite the actions of Palestinian suicide bombers. Try asking the Allies in World War Two, who negotiated a peace treaty with the Japanese, despite their kamikazi pilots. One could go on...

I think the key skill needed is opening your mouth and vibrating your vocal chords in the right way.