September 11th ring a bell?

Here are the main lessons from history:

1) No matter how powerful, states eventually overextend themselves externally, while paying only lip service to its original values internally. The combined action destabilizes the organization of that state. Like a house with termites, it eventually just crumbles away, or reorganizes on a far more modest level.

2) Attempts to intimidate a populace who are determined to defend their homes, fail - either outright, or in the subtle form of adopting the very culture of the occupied people (this is rare). You can't bomb their morale away - the only way to succeed is to uproot the entire population - something we sort of did with the Indians, something the Germans failed to do in Poland, having understimated the bottom line of their final solution.

Expeditions of intimidation to the Middle East have been attempted. They failed because 1) they cost too much 2) the defenders always have an enormous advantage 3) blind zealotry made the attackers short-sighted and stupid and eventually unable to sustain the attack.

Post #90,302 by Brandioch 3/22/03 1:38:07 AM Reply	September 11th ring a bell?
Post #90,431 by orion 3/22/03 5:39:16 PM Reply	Re: September 11th ring a bell? Yes it does, and we will do what we can to prevent it from happening again. We also must not live in fear, or else the terrorists have won. "Bill gates cannot guarantee Windows, so how are you going to guarantee my safety?" -John Crichton to the Emperor of the Scarrans on [link\|http://www.farscape.com\|FarScape]
Post #90,437 by deSitter 3/22/03 5:51:30 PM Reply	Re: September 11th ring a bell? Here are the main lessons from history: 1) No matter how powerful, states eventually overextend themselves externally, while paying only lip service to its original values internally. The combined action destabilizes the organization of that state. Like a house with termites, it eventually just crumbles away, or reorganizes on a far more modest level. 2) Attempts to intimidate a populace who are determined to defend their homes, fail - either outright, or in the subtle form of adopting the very culture of the occupied people (this is rare). You can't bomb their morale away - the only way to succeed is to uproot the entire population - something we sort of did with the Indians, something the Germans failed to do in Poland, having understimated the bottom line of their final solution. Expeditions of intimidation to the Middle East have been attempted. They failed because 1) they cost too much 2) the defenders always have an enormous advantage 3) blind zealotry made the attackers short-sighted and stupid and eventually unable to sustain the attack. -drl
Post #90,588 by pwhysall 3/23/03 8:18:01 AM Reply	"Never start a land war in Asia" Peter [link\|http://www.debian.org\|Shill For Hire] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Blog]
Post #90,659 by Simon_Jester 3/23/03 11:44:20 AM Reply	Next up - Bush tries to outsmart a Sicilan.
Post #90,669 by admin 3/23/03 11:54:12 AM Reply	In-con-THEEV-able! Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #90,688 by bepatient 3/23/03 12:31:35 PM Reply	Truly, you have a dizzying intellect. If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. _{Fudd's First Law of Opposition} [link\|mailto:bepatient@aol.com\|BePatient]
Post #90,695 by admin 3/23/03 12:48:57 PM Reply	ObLRPD: Naive is one word for it. Regards, -scott anderson "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
Post #91,111 by Ashton 3/24/03 4:26:39 PM Reply	Is that better than dazzling?
Post #90,450 by Brandioch 3/22/03 6:33:01 PM Reply	"What is the best that they got, a guy name Mohamed with a j You had ORIGINALLY asked: "What is the best that they got, a guy name Mohamed with a jacket full of TNT? :)" No, the BEST they had took over 4 aircraft and destroyed the WTC and part of the Pentagon. "Low tech" can be used against "high tech". As the attack on the WTC demonstrated.
Post #90,499 by orion 3/22/03 10:03:54 PM Reply	Point well made but security has been beefed up, it is less likely they could pull that stunt again. "Bill gates cannot guarantee Windows, so how are you going to guarantee my safety?" -John Crichton to the Emperor of the Scarrans on [link\|http://www.farscape.com\|FarScape]

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