Re: "World war 3"

[Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu]

On Wed, 12 Sep 2001 10:40:01 +0200, TOMSON ERIC said:

> the war), there's simply nothing to excuse or justify such inhumanity
> *against innocent civilians*.

You're making the dangerous assumption that the perpetrators have a belief
system that recognizes the victims as innocent civilians.

Even though there are civilians in it, I think everybody agrees that
the Pentagon is a *military* target in any sense of the word.

And if the perpetrators see themselves at war with Western capitalism,
anybody who worked in the WTC is supporting the enemy and thus not innocent.

*NOTE* - I'm pointing out what the perpetrators *might* believe.  I'm *NOT*
saying it's acceptable in my belief system - merely pointing out that
*understanding* the thinking of the perpetrators is necessary in order to
properly deal with the problem long-term.  For instance, it would probably
be a *very bad* idea to create martyrs during our retaliation.....

We've already had enough lack of success dealing with software vandals,
often due to not understanding their motivations.  Fortunately, so far
it's been small stuff of the CodeRed variety.  Failing to really
understand the motivations and goals of a truly determined adversary
in the Internet arena could be REALLY bad news.
-- 
				Valdis Kletnieks
				Operating Systems Analyst
				Virginia Tech

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