Interesting People mailing list archives
more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 10:58:23 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: h_bray () globe com Date: September 13, 2005 8:36:20 AM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Re: [IP] more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says One more brief comment: A discussion of a rather dubious "scientific" paper has shifted into a discussion of whether or not 9/11 was foreseen by anybody other than TomClancy. Lots of people have piled onto a comment I tossed off merely as a casual aside. And a good thing too, for their comments only reinforce my
point. Yes, I know some other experts had thought of the idea of terroristscrashing planes into buildings. So what? It's obvious that it still took virtually the entire planet by surprise. Merely noting that other experts had considered the idea doesn't alter the central point--that until 9/11, it was considered a low-probability event and very little effort was made
to fend off such an attack.The Emory paper was produced by someone who's still acting as if we still inhabited that innocent pre-9/11 world. The entire argument assumes that
while diseases are clear and present dangers to human life, terrorist attacks are not. Because mass-casualty attacks happen rarely, it's a waste of money to try and prevent them.But the people who've howled at me for my comment on 9/11 should themselves see the folly of this argument. Terrorist attacks aren't zero- probability events; they can and do happen. As my critics have noted, you actually can
predict that these guys will keep getting more and more violent. In addition, we know that there are global networks of these guys always looking for even more deadly methods for killing more and more and morepeople. And if they had nuclear weapons, they'd use them without batting
an eye. Faced with such an enemy, it's silly to say that we should instead spendall our money on curing bird flu. Thanks for coming round to my point of
view, guys. Hiawatha Bray ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says David Farber (Sep 10)
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- more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says David Farber (Sep 11)
- more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says David Farber (Sep 11)
- more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says David Farber (Sep 11)
- more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says David Farber (Sep 11)
- more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says David Farber (Sep 12)
- more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says David Farber (Sep 12)
- more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says David Farber (Sep 13)
- more on "War on Terra" saves few lives, expert says David Farber (Sep 13)