At 05:32 PM 9/13/01, Jeroen wrote:
>At 14:29 13-9-01 -0700, Jeffrey Miller wrote:
>
>> > The leader of the Green Left expressed concern that NATO's decision will
>> > lead to terrorist attacks in The Netherlands.
>>
>>Why?
>>
>>Seriously.. if I were going to pick a NATO country to attack, why on
>>earth would I pick .nl?[0]
>
>Let's see.
>- The Dutch government supports the US, which in itself might already be
>enough reason for terrorists to attack targets in The Netherlands.
>- Like in so many other countries, there is a US embassy here -- always a
>prime target.
>- The city of The Hague houses the International Court of Justice.
>- Much of the goods that are shipped to Europe go through The Netherlands
>(Rotterdam has the largest container port in the world); a few well-placed
>bombs could seriously disrupt supply lines to the rest of Western Europe.
>- All major oil corporations have large refineries in The Netherlands;
>destroying those oil supplies would certainly do quite some harm.
>- Europe is moving towards a situation in which each country's military
>contributes to European defense with whatever that country specialises in.
>In the case of The Netherlands, it is logistics. Eindhoven Air Force Base
>(only a few kilometers from my house, and one of the locations where I
>work) will become a major hub in European military air transports in the
>next few years.
>
>
>>[0] other than, of course, its not an obvious target and most people in
>>the US (my main enemy) couldn't find it on a map
>
>As shown above, there are obviously more targets here than you thought. As
>for most people in the US not being able to find The Netherlands on a map:
>every few years reports trickle into our newspapers that say that many US
>citizens can not even locate *their own country* on a map...
Some of us cannot even locate our own backsides with a map . . .
;-)
--Ronn! :)
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I always knew that I would see the first man on the Moon.
I never dreamed that I would see the last.
--Dr. Jerry Pournelle
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