From: rhinoceros (rhinoceros@freemail.gr)
Date: Thu Aug 22 2002 - 19:12:34 MDT
[Joe Dees 1]
And when isthe 'proper' time to panic? After the mushroom cloud rises? How much better to forfend that possibility; even if uncertain, it is far too devastating a possibility to risk its actualization.
[rhinoceros 2]
Joe, has it occured to you that while you are busy with Saddam someone else in South America is secretly preparing to deliver the mushroom cloud on NYCity? You never know.
[Jake 3] Yeah, we better invade South America.
[Joe Dees 4]
We'd better attend to the genuine threats of which we know, rather than making fake ones up in a futile attempt to score rhetorical points.
[rhinoceros 5]
But the Saddam threat is also just a possibility. What if a coleague of Bin Laden supported by huge funds has established an underground laborary under the Andes? Would you risk caught in surprise and the mushroom cloud delivered upon NYCity? It would surely be too late to regret then.
[Joe Dees 6]
Yeah, and what if those dwarfs busily fellating unicorns beneath the mountains of the moon were also constructing interplanetary ICBM's, ayy? I speak of genuine, authentic, substantial, concrete and real possibilities, not those whioch may be considered as a sliver over zero probability simply because statistically, no logical possibility can be absolutely discounted. Let's deal with the overwhelmingly more likely.
[rhinoceros 7]
How likely is "more likely". When it was pointed out that your arguments about Saddam's threats, actions, and mental state could not support your conclusion that Saddam was going to deliver a nuclear strike on the USA, you replied that you just had to make sure that the nuclear mushroom would not rise above New York.
[Joe Dees 8]
Actually, his past history eminently supports my position that he is fully capable of just such an action.
[rhinoceros 9]
"Supporting your position" that Saddam is likely to hit an American city with nuclear weapons is an overstatement. Against all evidence, you do not accept that the USA has been proven to be fully *capable of delivering* a nuclear strike on a whim, while at the same time you assert that Saddam is fully *capable of developing* nuclear weapons AND *capable of delivering* a strike on New York City with those imagined weapons AND *willing to deliver* a nuclear strike onto New York City on a whim. Just notice that your assertions are so unlikely that you have to speculate that Saddam is insane.
If this kind of logic seems to you adequate justification for killing several thousands Iraqis more, just in case, then you will find it difficult to sleep well at any time in the future. The unicorns engineered in South Africa some years ago, combined with the reality of moon flight, combined with the possibility that dwarves are really busy fellating the unicorns beneath the mountains of the moon and constructing interplanetary ICBMs will haunt you in your dreams.
I do not mean to say that the USA administrations is delusional or anything like that. They just want to play their domination games and, by the way, dump their annual load of bombs somewhere for the third year in a row.
[rhinoceros 7]
Well, how can you be sure that someone else is not secretly preparing to deliver the mushroom upon the heads of the inhabitants of New York City, causing unimagible destruction to them and grief and pain to their relatives and friends, and all this as a result of an inconsiderate attitude of denialism.
[Joe Dees 8]
I cannot be, but it is important to deal with the very real threrats of which we are aware, rather than succumb to a terminal 'analysis paralysis' simply because there remains the bare logical possibility that there are threats of which we are not aware (although we should look for those, too). The possibility of a second threat is no logical grounds not to act to forfend the first.
[rhinoceros 9]
Yes, you are aware of many more threats, of the same or of a higher probability than your presumed threat from Saddam. The possibility of the secret laboratory that I mentioned, the possibility of a fraction of scientists in Pakistan, the possibility that in ten years from now some dozens of little strange men holding suitcases will be crossing the borders and blowing up American cities, are all much more probable than your Saddam scenario. Do you really want to be safe just like me? Try to convince the USA not to piss off people by bombing them.
---- This message was posted by rhinoceros to the Virus 2002 board on Church of Virus BBS. <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;threadid=26194>
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