Yeah CL - the troll breathed. But everyone is entitled to ONE mistake... perhaps he'll stop now, and never, ever, ever, do it again. ;-) E.

"as terrorists are quite often highly discriminating in their choice of target" True.

Indeed. They deliberately pick pizza parlors and discotheques because they are full of Israeli youth, and because they are relatively unguarded. Not a random target at all...

Hi, Thanks for the comments from all. Sorry for not getting back sooner -- i have been too busy losing money lately to take a look at postings... i didn't meant to say that the targets were selected at random (wouldn't do a terrorist much good to set of bombs in the middle of the ocean, which would be the literal result of 'random' bombings in over 2/3s of all cases... :-)). i simply meant that terrorists do not plan to kill specific people or specific groups of people, in fact (e.g., think of all the Muslims killed in the African embassy bombings, WTC, etc...). The one exception that i can think of offhand is the Eta, who, of late, have targetted specific government officials in Spain. i don't know as much about Eta and Spain, so i can't really argue this point stringently, i suppose. Still, i can't personally get over the 'random' nature of terrorist attacks. If the train i ride on commuting into the City is blown up by Al-Qa'ida, Infidel me will get blown up right along with the observant Muslim from Pakistan sitting right next to me. If my car doesn't start or i stop for a moment to tie my shoe and miss the train, i live and some other unfortunate takes my seat on the terror train... that's indescriminant in my book. How was that bit of back-peddling?... :-) All the best, e...

BlackHistory, Apologies for the snub... i somehow overlooked your posting the other day and just found it looking back over entries now... Saw the RE: KoSo, but not the original for some reason. All the best, e...

KoSo - he was proved to be a troll and was executed from the boards. some of his more... trollish posts went with him. no great loss. E.

The 9-11 attacks did not randomly choose targets, even though the individuals killed were a diverse group. There are tens of thousands of buildings in this city. Those two were not Random, neither was the Pentagon. Madrid... seemingly random, but the political goal, manipulate the election, was clear, and the target may well have been chosen to maximize casualties while providing easy access and escape routes. Bali, similar- target was chosen to maximize Western deaths and provide easy access and escape. I think, in general, all targets are chosen, and we may not know all the selection criteria, but still, I would never say random.

Random, no.

agreed...

Terrorism implys that it is done at the behist of a clandestine political conspiracy. When simmilar things are done by a state it is tyranny but not terrorism-not because it isnt bad but because it isn't done by a clandestine "NGO". Thus the Communists before 1917 were terrorists-after they were tyrrants.