Bin Laden's New Message
DOOManiac
Worst. Critic. Ever. Join Date: 2002-04-17 Member: 462Members, NS1 Playtester
Worst. Critic. Ever. Join Date: 2002-04-17 Member: 462Members, NS1 Playtester
<div class="IPBDescription">scarry stuff? or overreacting?</div> As you probably already know, apparently Osama Bin Laden is alive and <a href='http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/02/11/sprj.irq.wrap/index.html' target='_blank'>has released a tape</a> urging all Muslims to arms in a fight against the US and its allies. According to the govt. this does seem to be authentic, but offical confirmation as to whether it really is bin laden or not is still pending.
I first heard about it from the local news. I don't know if they were TRYING to scare the crap out of people or what, but they were sure doing a good job. They were telling people to duct tape up all the windows and vents in their house in case of biological attack, and to keep several <i>gallons</i> of water on supply...
I know that its good to be prepared and all, but come on, this is a bit far. This is what the terrorists WANT: to grind our country to a hault every time they say "jump".
AND, right after this they show a 'breaking news' segment, where up in some podunk town out in the middle of nowhere, a town of maybe, MAYBE 500 people, they found a "suspciious package" in a church, that has a "suspcious substance" on it. they think its ANTHRAX... stupid people... As lewis black said, "Look at where you live! The taliban doesn't want to kill you, you're already dead...".
So now the government is saying there might be another terrorist attack soon, for real this time (as opposed to the fake security warnings before?), perhaps even before the end of the week. The part that is concerning about this is that in the past, yes Bin Laden has made official statements soon before he's made an attack.
But what do I find the most concerning? The call from Bin Laden for all muslims to attack the US. No, not because I'm a moron who thinks Muslim = Taliban, but because there are many, many people who do think that. I think this will cause a rise in unjust prejudice and racism towards that group of people, perhaps even violence towards them. Livin in Oklahoma, which is in a region known as the "Bible Belt", the Christians here already hate them anyway simply because they aren't Baptist (they even hate Catholics). And being the rightous people they are, they must use violence to kill in God's name (but not the same way the enemy is doing it, no this is different). [/sarcasm].
So yeah, I think things got lots worse, not necessarily because I expect an attack, but mainly due to what this is going to do to the mental state of the country...
<span style='color:white'>[Edit]</span>And in the worst gamespy headline ever:
C&C GENERALS RELEASED: Osama Bin Laden celebrates by coming out of hiding to declare war on China and the United States. GLA! GLA!
err, seriously though heh, it is wierd to have a game about current conflicts, as that's something that hasn't really happened before. I bet that if the US were to get in a full out war (like ww2, which I pray to several gods of every religion that this doesn't happen) there will probably be a lot of "patriotic" war games showing up. Amercia's Army anyone? <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> <span style='color:white'>[/Edit]</span>
I first heard about it from the local news. I don't know if they were TRYING to scare the crap out of people or what, but they were sure doing a good job. They were telling people to duct tape up all the windows and vents in their house in case of biological attack, and to keep several <i>gallons</i> of water on supply...
I know that its good to be prepared and all, but come on, this is a bit far. This is what the terrorists WANT: to grind our country to a hault every time they say "jump".
AND, right after this they show a 'breaking news' segment, where up in some podunk town out in the middle of nowhere, a town of maybe, MAYBE 500 people, they found a "suspciious package" in a church, that has a "suspcious substance" on it. they think its ANTHRAX... stupid people... As lewis black said, "Look at where you live! The taliban doesn't want to kill you, you're already dead...".
So now the government is saying there might be another terrorist attack soon, for real this time (as opposed to the fake security warnings before?), perhaps even before the end of the week. The part that is concerning about this is that in the past, yes Bin Laden has made official statements soon before he's made an attack.
But what do I find the most concerning? The call from Bin Laden for all muslims to attack the US. No, not because I'm a moron who thinks Muslim = Taliban, but because there are many, many people who do think that. I think this will cause a rise in unjust prejudice and racism towards that group of people, perhaps even violence towards them. Livin in Oklahoma, which is in a region known as the "Bible Belt", the Christians here already hate them anyway simply because they aren't Baptist (they even hate Catholics). And being the rightous people they are, they must use violence to kill in God's name (but not the same way the enemy is doing it, no this is different). [/sarcasm].
So yeah, I think things got lots worse, not necessarily because I expect an attack, but mainly due to what this is going to do to the mental state of the country...
<span style='color:white'>[Edit]</span>And in the worst gamespy headline ever:
C&C GENERALS RELEASED: Osama Bin Laden celebrates by coming out of hiding to declare war on China and the United States. GLA! GLA!
err, seriously though heh, it is wierd to have a game about current conflicts, as that's something that hasn't really happened before. I bet that if the US were to get in a full out war (like ww2, which I pray to several gods of every religion that this doesn't happen) there will probably be a lot of "patriotic" war games showing up. Amercia's Army anyone? <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> <span style='color:white'>[/Edit]</span>
Comments
<i>Mental</i> is the right word.
I don't follow an organized religion, but I won't lay my opinions down on those tonight.
Actually, if the tape was to be authentic, this could well be the real intention behind it. Bin Laden (if he isn't dead already) knows he'll gain support with every anti-Islamic action commited by Americans or those supported by the US.
Basically, by creating hate against his men, he can create even more hate towards 'us', which in turn would strengthen him considerably.
By the way, don't you also think it's ridiculous how the American government tries to link Al-Quaeda and Hussein over this tape while in it, it's literally stated that Hussein is <i>no</i> ally?
I can't wait for bush to claim it as an excuse to either
a) bomb iraq
b) bomb afghanistan.. again!
Hell its probably US propaganda for all we know. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
"When the boy cried wolf" or something along that famous story. We keep taking for granted that something may happen but since weve had so many "false attacks warnings" we take for granted that one day it may be real. please think about it and realize that that fable was not made for no reason. Its a scary thought.
<span style='color:white'><b>Don't dodge the swear filters... they're there for a reason.</span></b>
The timing is what I find most interesting. While it seems to be all but a foregone conclusion that Bush <i>is</i> going to attack Iraq, he really doesn't have much of a solid support base-- certainly not abroad, where even NATO is split, nor at home, where domestic polls and peace demonstrations seem to indicate that there's a significant amount of doubt coursing through the US population.
So Al Queda, or an associated group, is attempting to launch a <i>pre-emptive</i> pre-emptive attack. Which, as history indicates, would probably result in a) a knee-jerk period of solidarity in the states, where there's a definite 'Us against Them' mentality pervading our society, which of course leads to b) Bush with carte blanche (at least domestically) to do whatever the Hell he wants against anyone who is remotely Middle Eastern. And, of course, it will significantly lessen the influence of Eurpoean nations who are currently keeping us in check-- the whole 'Well, when thousands of <i>your</i> citizens are murdered by these people, <i>then</i> you can show us how restraint is important. Until then . . . ' attitude.
Where the Hell was I going with this? Oh. Yeah. I think an attack would be a blatant attempt to push Bush into action, thus fomenting more anti-American sentiment abroad (<i>like we need help with that, these days</i>) and further their cause. Pretty much the same thing that we're doing on the other side. It's all about pretexts, these days.
Come valentine day, i'm gonna snuggle up with my computer and help spread the infestation *FBI raids house* of Kharaa! Go NS, boo multiple terrorist attack warnings
1) In the event our State Department made the whole thing up, at least it shows they aware of the need to cough some "proof" of something, to justify going to war this winter. Half the time I'm not sure the administration is even aware of just how bad it looks to shove this war through prematurely. Faking something at least tells me they're aware of the image problem.
2) If it is real, it confirms that Bin Laden is giving horrible advice. Fight the enemy in trenches? Could there be any WORSE advice? If his story of a bunch of mujahadeen surviving two hours of bombardment in trenches is true, the most likely explanation to me is that they were discovered by aircraft with the wrong type of armament, and no one deemed it necessary to send the right ordnance over. Cluster bombs devastate trenches, all the little bomblets fall right in. I think all the trench does is provide a big dark visual line to help line up the crosshairs.
I have respect for the ability of terrorists to do extensive damage, but you have to keep things in perspective. On 9-11 they weren't out-of-this-world brilliant, they took advantage of a system that people had known was incompetent for YEARS. Now that everyone has been preparing for the apocalypse for two years, as well shooting anything that moves, their capabilities probably aren't better, if not worse, than before. Nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons are not that easy to use with the same effectiveness as a modern military. Sure, they can get their hands on these things, and kill at best several thousand people after a long series of lucky breaks, but they don't have the power to end civilization like the US and Russia do. A dirty bomb is only going to ruin a few square blocks of some city somewhere. Chemical weapons only work well in enclosed spaces. An actual nuclear weapon of the suitcase size variety is obviously a bad thing, but I don't think you can flatten New York with one. Nuclear weapons are usually detonated at altitude to allow the blast ball to expand- so in addition to somehow getting the thing into the US, they'd have to stick the thing on a Cessna and fly it over a city. Do that without permission over any of the big ones, and you'll get shot down. If you do have permission, hopefully that means the feds have some way of knowing what's on the plane, or that you have to come from certain airports with security. Biological weapons are the worst threat right now I'd imagine, but I think we do have some basic plans in place for damage control. The general idea I think is that when someone calls "fire" you go home and sit for a couple weeks without contact, and let the sick people die off.
The worst stuff from WHATEVER they do is not the actual damage, but the blind panic that ensues. Don't fear the terrorists so much as the economic paralysis that magnifies every little event into a catastrophe.
edit
As far as the tape "proving" that Osama and Iraq are connected, The Bush administration would say they were connected by Islam if the American people would let them get away with it.
/edit
Personaly, I think it's all BS. Pure and simple.
disturbing ehh?
What bubbleblower said is true.
And even if the government gave us all the warnings possible about a terrorist attack... do you think people wouldn't be killed? Would anything go right? No! I believe the only reason they raised this was to wave the bloody shirt again, and drum up support behind the flag waving legions to go attack Iraq or whatever they want to do.
This whole "5 bars representing the security level over an entire continent" is convoluted and ... plain stupid. There might be more of a danger in New York than in Seattle, but people in Seattle are told to get duct tape to cover their windows just the same (which really isn't going to do anything against an attack anyway).
And think... if they actually wanted to help the US out, they'd lower the terror alert to 1. That would do wonders for the economy. It's not like the terror alert system is actually indicative of anything.
rotfl, like the old cold war days eh?
well anyway, i wanted to mention that there was somethign peculiar about this tape. The story goes like this:
Secretary of State (Powell) is in a session with NATO (I could have been the US congress, i forget) and he tells them about this tape. But the thing is, Al-Jazeera, who is supposed to be recieving these tapes from, "unknown sources" actually got this tape after Colin Powell made his speech. I remember a white house press conference where the media was like, "wtf is with this tape, Al-Jazerra denies they have it, etc." and they were damn right, they didn't have the tape. But the state department did. could this be an inside job to rally support in the upcoming war? It wouldn't suprise me, last thing I heard was that Bin Laden was on a dialysis machine.
<a href='http://www.guardian.co.uk/alqaida/story/0,12469,894482,00.html' target='_blank'>British New Story</a>
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Yesterday, al-Jazeera staff appeared surprised at the arrangements for submitting Bin Laden tapes to the US via the Qatari government. "I'm not aware of this procedure at all," said a spokesman. "We got the tape at the station literally two hours before it was aired. A group of us huddled round and listened to it, and discussed what to do with it in the light of Mr Powell's statement."
Washington's possession of an advance copy may also explain why US officials were able to declare so soon after the broadcast that they believed it was indeed Bin Laden. German security sources said they also believed it was genuine. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That is the worse thing about all of this.
Paranoia will consume us all. <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif'><!--endemo-->
Actually if Iraq does what they're planning to do now and fight the Americans in their cities then it's gonna be a very differant story. City fighting negates a lot of advantages that the US army uses: manuverability, armour, and air power. Damn hard to manuvere in a city environment, and ambushes are very easy to pull off. Armour can be hit from the flanks and rear, and even modern tanks are vunerable to cheap easy to produce weaponry like Molotov cocktails. Air power as well is difficult to direct effectivly in cities, destroying a building too often creates more barricades for the defenders. In the end you have to send infantry forces in to clear the city house by house, street by street. Bin Laden simply was calling for the people to fight, "trenches" is more of a generic term for defensive positions.
I'm reminded of the movie "Black Hawk Down" and the Somalian mission it was based around. Only 19 casualties were required for US forces to leave the country. Iraq is on a whole other scale, and since Vietnam the US has been fighting and winning wars with very few casualties. Will the US public be willing to accept high casualties in a war many of them don't see as nessassary?
As for all the concerns about terrorist attacks: How do you Yanks sleep? I mean seriously, if you believed your government the entire country is about to be swamped in terrorists! And isn't it a useful co-incidence that right before Bush want's to get more support for an Iraq war a warning goes out saying "terrorists may use chemical, biological or radiological weapons against us". It's all just more justifcation for higher military spending and detracting from the real problems America faces. You have 25.000 nuclear weapons America, and what good were they against the Sept 11 hijackers? I thoughts in the light of Sept 11 America would reduce it's military spending and put more emphasis on intelligence services. Seems I was wrong...
I sleep quite well at night, knowing that we have other intelligence agencies helping us. and no, we haven't reduced military spending because *we must clean the world of terrorists*. (cough) excrement of male cow (cough)
God Bless the MI5, MI6, the DDR equivalent of CIA, the (Forgot modern name) KGB, the Mossad, French Intellegince and the Aussie Intel people. And the CIA. CIA hasn't really said anything that im gonna worry about.
oh but we are. Or have you not payed attention to the hundreds of people buying duct tape and plastic to keep the chemical weapons out...
Chances are that the same sheeple who bought duct tape and plastic sheeting would use their air conditioners and not realize.