Obama wants to raise gas pricesFollow

So what was his excuse for the later years when gas went up to $3.65?

Hahahahahahaha...

Ah, you.

It is not hypocrisy. It's a desire to see the same attention paid to the current president re: the rise in gas prices as was paid to the previous president. If it was W's fault then, certainly it's Obama's fault now. If there is hypocrisy it certainly must rest on the Left as that is where the equivocation is being made.

It was speculation then, and it's speculation now, pure and simple. There is currently no shortage of oil, as The Kingdom has stepped up output to fill any gaps.

You make up the savings in government Amoxicillin.

Do you get paid in $?

Fill your gas tanks now.

Yes. But this is purely circular logic isn't it? The symbolism of attacking a plane is great only because that's where they've focused their efforts in the past, and thus that's where the greatest security is, and thus that's where the greatest impact is if/when you succeed. But hijacking planes goes back to the old style of terrorism, where they'd hijack and make demands, but not specifically intend to kill people or use the planes as a weapon. Planes were a great target because once in the air, there was little or nothing anyone outside the plane could do to stop them.

That symbolism continues purely because of impetus from that starting point. The 9/11 attackers realized that they could take advantage of the historical use of plane hijacking to ensure that no one would fight them that hard when they attempted to take the plane, and no one would just shoot them down to stop their attack. But that's really just a one time thing. You aren't going to get away with that again.

So they've destroyed the ability to conduct the "hijack and make demands" operations which originally was the reason planes were targeted in the first place. You can no longer use them as weapons, for the same reason. The only thing you can do is blow it up and kill the passengers. And yes, I get that this currently still holds great symbolic value, but as I said, that's circular logic. At this point, it's the most symbolic because it's where the terrorists are targeting us. They could switch to something else and then *that* would become the symbolic target for attack.



They're fixated on repeating the same sort of attack as 9/11, which completely changed the playing field in that area. The problem though is that they can't ever achieve that same level of victory exactly because having done it once, it makes it nearly impossible to repeat. Remember, the symbolic victory isn't about the planes, it's about showing that the US can't stop the attacks and can't protect its people. Most importantly, it's about making a big impact with an attack that no one expects or is prepared for. For that reason, we're very much making a mistake by focusing on air travel IMO.


If I were the leader of a terrorist group, and I wanted to shock the US with another 9/11 level attack, trains are exactly what I would target. I would obtain quantities of high explosive devices, with simple trigger mechanisms, each one about the size of a backpack. Since my operatives don't have to pass through metal detectors, or bomb sniffing dogs, or really any security at all, the most difficult part of the operation is made easy. The devices don't have to be particularly hidden at all. I'd then set the devices either on trains, or just on the tracks (easier and honestly more effective) set to trigger at points where the trains are traveling at their highest speeds. I'd then time them to go off in rapid succession on a number of different tracks derailing a half dozen or more high speed passengers trains within a short period of time. Ideally, you want them to go off with enough time between them that they get a report of a derailment, then another, then another, then another, etc, but not so many or so far apart that they'll tell all the trains to stop before you can blow a number of them up. If done perfectly, you have them still going off on random sections of track right up to the point at which someone finally gives the order to stop all trains in the US. That way, they have to stay stopped while every single foot of track in the US is inspected for more devices before you can resume travel.


The cost of this attack would be huge. The effect on the US would be absolutely demoralizing. Loss of life would not be as high as 9/11, but higher than you'd get with any other series of attacks using the same materials. It could easily be in the 800-1000+ deaths range (if you could get off say 8-10 devices before things stop). More to the point, you cripple the rail system in the US. It will take days or likely even weeks to clear every section of track for use, and similar amounts of time to repair the tracks that were destroyed. The fear it would create is greater than that for a plane though. You can secure a plane. You can search everyone getting on it, and everything going inside it. How do you search every foot of track a train is going to travel on when anyone can just walk up to any section and spend 30 second placing a device that can derail the next train? It's impossible.

I think anyone foolish enough to think that planes will continue to be the primary target of terrorism in the US is the one with the "shallow mind". I'm thinking outside the box. Just like the 9/11 attack was outside the box, so will the next such attack have to be. Continuing to try to blow up planes just wont cut it. Heck. Even if you succeed, no one will know right away that it was a bomb that did it. Planes do occasionally just fall apart and crash. It can takes weeks before the NTSB can definitively say that a bomb was responsible for downing a plane. That's not exactly the effect terrorists are looking for. They want people afraid to walk out their front doors. They want them afraid to go into public spaces. They want them afraid all the time, wherever they go. And they want another attack that will rivet the whole country onto their TVs as they watch it unfold before them. A single plane crash which 2 weeks later is discovered to have been from a bomb doesn't really accomplish that for them.


Coordinated attacks designed for maximum media impact are what they are seeking. And trains are a great target IMO.

Edited, Mar 10th 2011 4:51pm by gbaji

You apparently have no clue what circular logic is.

I know, it's pathetic. You give him a dozen examples every day and he still doesn't get it.

Too bad he didn't.