So do you think we'll strike back?

[Lancer]

We'll get nuked, then a few terrorist supporting states will get really really nuked, then the terrorism will stop.

[Blaupanzer]

Nuking "terrorist supporting states" is rather like taking a hammer to a marshmallow. The mess is really bad, but the marshmallow is still there. Terrorism won't go away because we murdered a bunch of relatively innocent civilians in a part of the world that is very serious about long-term grudges(thousand years and more).

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Think visas. The 9/11 hijackers had visas. The London doctors had visas.

Right now visa security measures try to screen for terrorists, but it would be interesting to see what the result would be if Western nations decided they were no longer issuing visas to anybody from a country with an Islamic government. Let the pressure fall to the citizens of those countries, especially the ones who are innocent: no business trips, no shopping sprees, no Western education for your kids, nothing until you get your acts together and at least try to eradicate the cancer in your own society.

[snoopy369]

I don't think that would fly internally...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by snoopy369
I don't think that would fly internally...

Not at the moment -- but once enough is enough, why not? It's not like anyone has an inherent right to a visa.

[Blake]

nothing until you get your acts together and at least try to eradicate the cancer in your own society.

American culture kills FAR more people. How many people do you think die of fast-food culture related ill health? Now how many die to terrorists? Hint: First number, HUGE, second number, tiny!

God it's so stupid. The American media is all like "Fear the terrorists! Buy our sh*t!", and so the American sheeples fear the terrorists and buy the sh*t, but it's the sh*t which is far more likely to kill them.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Blake

American culture kills FAR more people. How many people do you think die of fast-food culture related ill health? Now how many die to terrorists? Hint: First number, HUGE, second number, tiny!

God it's so stupid. The American media is all like "Fear the terrorists! Buy our sh*t!", and so the American sheeples fear the terrorists and buy the sh*t, but it's the sh*t which is far more likely to kill them.

What's stupid is your analogy. American culture does kill far more people, but we kill ourselves, and we do it without malice. At the point where, somehow, Americans start gorging on transfats with the end goal of killing people they disagree with, you'll have a point. Right now, you don't. You also don't seem to understand that national defense and social policy on diet are actually separate policy issues. In fact, it's not at all clear what you do understand.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
Not at the moment -- but once enough is enough, why not? It's not like anyone has an inherent right to a visa.

You don't have an inherent right to most government services, but that doesn't make it okay for them to discriminate based on nationality or religion. We've even enshrined that idea in our Constitution, even if it doesn't apply to visas...

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


You don't have an inherent right to most government services, but that doesn't make it okay for them to discriminate based on nationality or religion. We've even enshrined that idea in our Constitution, even if it doesn't apply to visas...

Our Constituton has nothing to do with it; we're talking about people from other countries, not our own. They don't even have an implicit right to any of our government services, or to a visa. A visa is and has always been a privilege, not a right.

Oh, and we do discriminate based on nationality -- which is why Canadians, Western Europeans, and the Japanese, among others, don't need tourist visas to come to the US.

[Kuciwalker]

Our Constituton has nothing to do with it; we're talking about people from other countries, not our own.

And you'll notice I mentioned that. The point was that we obviously hold the principle of non-discrimination based on nationality or religion in high regard.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

Our Constituton has nothing to do with it; we're talking about people from other countries, not our own.

And you'll notice I mentioned that. The point was that we obviously hold the principle of non-discrimination based on nationality or religion in high regard.

Except when we accord privileges to Brits and Germans that we don't accord to Filipinos and Mongolians.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
Think visas. The 9/11 hijackers had visas. The London doctors had visas.

Right now visa security measures try to screen for terrorists, but it would be interesting to see what the result would be if Western nations decided they were no longer issuing visas to anybody from a country with an Islamic government. Let the pressure fall to the citizens of those countries, especially the ones who are innocent: no business trips, no shopping sprees, no Western education for your kids, nothing until you get your acts together and at least try to eradicate the cancer in your own society.

Obvious answer being we'd lose a ton of money, outweighing the impact of a terrorist strike on the US. Hell, stop issuing visas to anybody from a country with an "Islamic government" and watch that oil pipeline get empty as OPEC countries in the ME counter.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly


Except when we accord privileges to Brits and Germans that we don't accord to Filipinos and Mongolians.

Those mongolians, they're mean little @%^#$s... you never know when a keshik will show up on your doorstep and massacre your city defenders

[Dinner]

They honestly can't; the oil embargo in the 70's nearly bankrupted several mideast governments. The truth is they have to sell their oil because the rest of their economies have serious flaws.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


Obvious answer being we'd lose a ton of money, outweighing the impact of a terrorist strike on the US. Hell, stop issuing visas to anybody from a country with an "Islamic government" and watch that oil pipeline get empty as OPEC countries in the ME counter.

OPEC's powerless. They have to sell the oil to somebody -- probably China -- who will turn around and sell it to us.

As for other monies lost, it would be interesting to compare that potential ton of money with the ton of money we would spend on military solutions, which are our current choice.