On Tuesday 09 December 2008 00:26, Rony wrote: > It is interesting to see the huge flood of messages in this list > after the comment on the police action. There is no doubt that > people are dying in larger numbers due to non-terror related > circumstances but these can be prevented if the individual is more > educated about the dangers lurking, like hanging outside a train, > finding practical means to pay back a farm loan, avoiding un-clean > environments to fight diseases.
Hmmm. I think you have never been to a drought and starvation hit district.... But then that is another story altogether. > However a terrorist strike is a > strike against an individual's freedom to exist and exist > peacefully. This is no different from a mob attack of local > political groups. If certain technologies are used to aid such > terror attacks then it is quite natural for the security agencies > to be cautious about the same. The satt. phones and GPS devices do > widen the scope of a terror strike from the lower end of a terror > hierarchy, one that can navigate its way with lesser guidance. This > increases the headache for the security forces who are already > under pressure. Wrong. It allows the vast majority of law abiding citizens to improve their lot. Mobile phones are also used by terrorist. GPS usage was restricted precisely because maps were not available. Do you know that you can compute local atmospheric conditions and thus derive accurate weather data using the gps sat broadcasts. > By co-operating with them, we are only lessening > their burden. Many incompetent Govts. in democracies have realized > that the war on terrorism is a viable alternative to good > governance. The same is true for Nations under dictators. It is precisely these and many other so called good governments who went about arming rogue nations and warlords to suit their short term goals. These arms have been dished out to terrorists ($50 for an AK47 in Kandhar). Manufacturing RDX requires a massive plant. And sale of these is tightly controlled right? And these are not of much use to ordinary folks? And ordinary folks cant even use these if they are given one? So where is the catch? Terror strikes are of two types the political (Naxals, Peoples war group LTTE etc) and the destabilisers (LET, Alquaida). Both depend on disenfranchised groups of people as delivery mechanisms. So preventing terror attacks requires far more resources than gizmos and two hundred commandos. Infact right now the state of India is pathetically ill equipped to stop terror. All the ban this and that proposals are not to prevent terror, but merely to prevent a political fallout and the public kicking the politicos ass. > The only > difference is that in a democracy we can change our leaders. We > must guard against patriotic criminals who want to use the war on > terror to come to power and then dictate our existence according to > their whims and fancies. We can do that by not falling into their > trap. Couldnt agree more. -- Rgds JTD -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
