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Re: The Islamists seemed to have the same goal
Robert — (archived)

It's an incredible stretch to try and compare the Japanese military attack on Pearl Harbor with the Islamist terrorist attacks of September 11th.

As for "self-induced" blindness, here's a white cane, and let's see if we can't guide you through this. Are you really trying to say that they chose the WTC, the Pentagon, and the White House (or Capitol) at random? That it was just a remarkable coincidence that those three targets happen to be internationally-recognized symbols of their respective institutions?

Careful, you just whacked your shins on the coffee table! Try again.

The choice of targets was by no stretch of the imagination random. Each was an obvious symbol. Where the Japanese had a military objective and rough parity in military power to hope to achieve it, terrorists by definition are military underdogs, and resort to terrorist tactics to exercize "asymmetrical force". Al Qaida had no military objective. Terrorist attacks are, by definition, symbolic, no matter how much pain they cause. The attacks of September 11th, in perspective, made not the slightest dent in American military power, and the terrorists had no expectation that they would. They were meant to inflict a psychological wound. You inflict psychological wounds through communication--sending a message. The attacks of September 11th were a message.

Seeing any light yet through those tightly-clenched eyelids?

--Robert

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