"Terrorists"

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Ok so there's this, right

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

and my question is: "'From our reports it appears that a terrorist penetrated Camp Pennsylvania, one or more terrorists threw two hand grenades into a tent,' said George Heath, spokesman at Fort Campbell, Ky., home base of the 101st," right: are the people bombing the invading enemy "terrorists" necessarily? Or just soldiers? And do we do ourselves any favors by insisting that when we do it, it's war, but when the other guy does it, it's terrorism?

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:02 (twenty-three years ago)

I think the label 'terrorists' is kind of an affiliation thing in this context. But given the normal connotations of the word I agree it's a stupid label. They could have called them 'agents of evil' or perhaps 'decepticons' instead and that would have been much cooler.

BTW the fact that you linked to Salon for this story is not lost on me, you French-Feta-preferring pinko

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:05 (twenty-three years ago)

The two things that the longer they continue to not happen/be seen, the more the government looks doltish (even more so than before, of course):

1) The terrorist events they predict 'will' happen a la 9/11 in the States in response to the Iraq invasion.

2) The chemical and biological weapons stockpiles that Hussein supposedly has all over the place in Iraq.

Admittedly the government has already painted itself into a corner on the second front. Possible scenarios:

GOV'T: "Er, we didn't find anything after all."
EVERYONE ELSE: "You clodhopping morons."
(likelihood of gov't saying this: nil)

GOV'T: "See, we DID find something!"
QUITE A FEW PEOPLE: "You're obviously faking that to create a justification."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:09 (twenty-three years ago)

when they "find" bio weapons you can believe they'll be destroyed before anybody gets a chance to photograph 'em: yes Virginia there will be a bloody glove

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:10 (twenty-three years ago)

of course then guys like me who point to AP wire stories that in the thick of the conflict were saying "there don't seem to be any bio weapons" will be told: "aww, you wouldn't believe there were bio weapons even if the Iraqis had used 'em on the troops" which again miraculously will never happen

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:12 (twenty-three years ago)

to which one says, "Well, why didn't they use them if they have them?"

to which they say, "I dunno. Those Iraqis sure are dumb."

― badgerminor, Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Maybe Saddam has already eaten them all.

― Gatinha (rwillmsen), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:32 (twenty-three years ago)

But IF more civilians were killed and IF chem/bio was used and IF a huge stateside attack succeeded those things would all be terrible, horrible events. I prefer that terrorists are silent and that chem warfare remains unseen. I don't give a shit who looks stupid or smart.

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:39 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't give a shit who looks stupid or smart.

oh yes you do

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, I want Bush to be revealed for the brilliant genius he is, his domestic policies are fantabulous and I hope he sticks around

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Who's smart now motherfuckers?

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:48 (twenty-three years ago)

re message #1: Sometimes, Millar, you completely rule the planet & should be given free beer.

re message #2: wait wait I link to a Salon AP wire piece and get called a pinko...by the guy who links to Saudi Arabia's mouth-organ? oh the richness of this cannot be CONTAINED

re a point within the story you linked to, when will I be able to buy a delicious package of Humints? mmm....huminty!

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Um, one of the field correspondents on CNN just revealed that one of the "main suspects" in the grenade incident was a US soldier.

― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, 23 March 2003 02:01 (twenty-three years ago)

He probably really wanted to drive the tank, but they wouldn't let him.

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 23 March 2003 02:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Millar I demand a little more outrage than that, you know if there were the slightest inkling of a hint that the culprit was some tree-hugging feta-sniffing lefty you'd be pulling out the darkest rhetoric you could muster

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 23 March 2003 02:14 (twenty-three years ago)

John, hippies don't have grenades!

― Ally (mlescaut), Sunday, 23 March 2003 02:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Given that if they had any bio weapons left they'd been hiding them it could take more time to dig them up and make them available to use in battle then they've got.

Still if this war's a rout it doesn't validate the decision to attack, it just shows what a tin-pot villain Saddam was in the first place.

― David Beckhouse (David Beckhouse), Sunday, 23 March 2003 02:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Maybe we shd start fucking with dictators worldwide after all. Like go to sub-saharan Africa and North Korea and other places with self-appointed King Shit For Life bozos spouting constant macho chatter and drop bunker busters that say 'I call BULLSHIT!' on them and their kids, just to show them they're wrong and that we are number one like Super Greg up in this piece.

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 23 March 2003 02:36 (twenty-three years ago)

How could that incident NOT be an inside job...

― Aaron A., Sunday, 23 March 2003 02:37 (twenty-three years ago)

link

― Kerry (dymaxia), Sunday, 23 March 2003 02:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Millar we installed half those fucs and you know it, including yer man Saddam

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 23 March 2003 02:45 (twenty-three years ago)

he's now being described as a black muslim. Any way it turns out, it's more witchhunt fodder.

― badgerminor, Sunday, 23 March 2003 02:57 (twenty-three years ago)

he was evidently a problem troop, too

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 23 March 2003 03:04 (twenty-three years ago)

It was a prank that went tragically askew!

― Gatinha (rwillmsen), Sunday, 23 March 2003 03:27 (twenty-three years ago)

nine years pass...

At one point the three men were heard via a bug planted in their car, mimicking Formula One commentator Murray Walker, and joking: "It's the four suicide bombers driving around ready to take on England."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/21/three-wouldbe-suicide-bombers-guilty-terror

they should have got punished more harshly for woeful attempts at "humour".

― Ballboy to Afghanistan (LocalGarda), Thursday, 21 February 2013 13:43 (thirteen years ago)

seriously do you have to be mental age 12 to be a suicide bomber in the uk?

― Ballboy to Afghanistan (LocalGarda), Thursday, 21 February 2013 13:43 (thirteen years ago)

Pretty much. Most of the people who get put up on charges in the UK and US are losers, fantasists and oddballs.

― Head Cheerleader, Homecoming Queen and part-time model (ShariVari), Thursday, 21 February 2013 13:57 (thirteen years ago)

Brings back the case of the belmullet gardai

― lance armstrong will have been delighted (darraghmac), Thursday, 21 February 2013 14:05 (thirteen years ago)

three years pass...

‏@SenSanders
It's not hard to understand: terrorists, potential terrorists, criminals and the dangerously mentally ill shouldn't have access to guns.

@ggreenwald Jun 20
Glenn Greenwald Retweeted Bernie Sanders
I'd love to get a definition of "potential terrorists" at some point, if that's going to be a legal category now.

― helpless before THRILLARY (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 23 June 2016 15:52 (ten years ago)

lol it's like you've never even seen minority report

― oculus lump (contenderizer), Thursday, 23 June 2016 15:53 (ten years ago)

A rare moment of both Greenwald and Morbs otm *and* Sanders notm

― socka flocka-jones (man alive), Thursday, 23 June 2016 16:18 (ten years ago)

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