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Terrorists seek to maximize damage That's not usually true. Terrorists often don't go for max deaths but for a specific symbolic target (e.g. Pentagon, wtc etc

Terrorists seek to maximize damage That's not usually true. Terrorists often don't go for max deaths but for a specific symbolic target (e.g. Pentagon, wtc etc). What they want is to provoke a response, ideally heavy-handed repression - the aim is to polarise the society targeted, to instill fear and panic, and reveal the implicit violence of government as explicit action. Drone strikes and the policy of global assassination does not keep you safe, it just kills a lot of people. Re support for democracy, I'm not sure why you believe that given support for Pinochet, sisi, Mubarak, hussein, Saud etc

alexanderstears 9y ago
What they want is to provoke a response, ideally heavy-handed repression sounds damage maximizing to me - provoking a heavy handed response sounds like an issue of damage multiplication. It's not as if all targets are equally valid to terrorists - no one ever suicide bombed a corn field in Nebraska. If the 9/11 hijackers were going for maximum damage, what should they have attacked? Drone strikes and the policy of global assassination does not keep you safe, it just kills a lot of people It keeps me more safe than doing nothing, and less safe than other more dramatic attacks - e.g glassing the countries that produce the most terrorists. I'm sure my local police could keep me more safe, but that doesn't discredit the safety they help create. Re support for democracy, I'm not sure why you believe that given support for Pinochet, sisi, Mubarak, hussein, Saud etc America supports non-democratically elected leaders in addition to democratically elected leaders. I don't have a list, but I think the only democratically elected government that the US doesn't support is Hamas.
averagewall 9y ago
A bit of a diversion but I don't think the 9/11 pentagon crash counts as terrorism because it was a military target. If you work at the Pentagon, you're more directly participating in war than an average person in New York.

alexanderstears 9y ago

What they want is to provoke a response, ideally heavy-handed repression sounds damage maximizing to me - provoking a heavy handed response sounds like an issue of damage multiplication. It's not as if all targets are equally valid to terrorists - no one ever suicide bombed a corn field in Nebraska. If the 9/11 hijackers were going for maximum damage, what should they have attacked? Drone strikes and the policy of global assassination does not keep you safe, it just kills a lot of people It keeps me more safe than doing nothing, and less safe than other more dramatic attacks - e.g glassing the countries that produce the most terrorists. I'm sure my local police could keep me more safe, but that doesn't discredit the safety they help create. Re support for democracy, I'm not sure why you believe that given support for Pinochet, sisi, Mubarak, hussein, Saud etc America supports non-democratically elected leaders in addition to democratically elected leaders. I don't have a list, but I think the only democratically elected government that the US doesn't support is Hamas.

averagewall 9y ago

A bit of a diversion but I don't think the 9/11 pentagon crash counts as terrorism because it was a military target. If you work at the Pentagon, you're more directly participating in war than an average person in New York.