<<1. Did you know that well over 20 airliners have been downed by MANPADs? 26 in all, actually, counting TWA 800. You are being disingenuously naive.

This is not news. It isn't widely advertised, I will grant you that, but no real attempt has been made to cover up these incidents. Flight 800 aside, it is actually odd that more terrorist missile attacks have not been made on U.S. targets, given the availability of the weapons and the thousands of opportunities to use them. Maybe they have been shooting, and they all missed so far. Better keep looking out the windows next time you fly. Look here for a remarkably interesting site on this subject, including some details of the attacks you mention. Again, note that these documented attacks were not "covered up" i.e. written off as exploding fuel tanks, just to make people feel "safe."

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Tom's reply counters Splix's arguement that 800 was a coverup. Why cover up one incident when others were not? Not only that, the issues of making folks feel safe is now a moot point. We've seen how resilient te public is to horror. So much for all the conspiracy theories based on the theory that the all-powerful cover up folks are protecting the public from panic.

It's abundantly clear that there is a strong psychological need by conspirationalists to have a faith based belief in their stories, one that transcends logical arguement. They also have time to burn dedicated to ferreting out the most obscure facts to support their contention while most rational folks dedicate their lives to other persuits like family, carrier and relationships. Our UFO True Believers have an unshaken faith that remains strong despite a complete lack of objective evidence over decades.

-philw