On Sat, Apr 03, 2004 at 07:48:35PM -0500, Robert J. Chassell wrote: > Why do you even consider this question?
I consider a lot of questions. That is a good way to think about things and try to understand. Why do you even consider why I consider the question? By the way, you may not be aware that Trent has studied Middle Eastern culture and people. I am trying to understand his thoughts on what happened. > As far as I can see, everything you imply concerning large numbers of > people --- say 50,000 or more -- is irrelevant. Ummm, huh? Imply? Large numbers of people? I am asking questions to try to understand motivations. I didn't think I implied much of anything. It is interesting, though, that months ago when I similarly asked a lot of questions to try to understand motivations that a few people also jumped to conclusions. I guess people are not used to suspending judgement and looking at things from different angles? > Let's think of who may have planned and organized this. There are two > possible groups: > one is the military of the former government. They .... > The other group consists of people who want to recreate a caliphate. Only two possibilities? No more? Your two possibilities only involve people who are goal-oriented and rationally or logically pursuing those goals according to a plan. I imagine that is because you tend to think that way. But there are a lot of people in the world who don't. Surely irrational people are also a possibility that should be considered, especially given the nature of the acts? [by the way, I do not mean to imply anything there except that I don't think you have considered all the reasonable possibilities for motives -- I don't know the motives, hence my questions] > Again, I have to ask you, when you say `they', what portion of the > population do you mean? How many standard deviations away from the > mean are you discussing? The killers, the desecrators, and the crowds verbally supporting their actions; which groups, as you point out, may not have the same motives. > Are you suggesting that smart military men do not think of the > cultural belief systems of the various people they are trying to > influence by their actions? No. > the first vehicle, an SUV, were killed. An `L' shaped ambush means > that some shot from the front and some shot from one side. None of > their bullets would go on to kill people in their side accidently, > because both shooting directions were away from their own soldiers.) So this is why you are assuming it was carefully planned, probably by someone with a military background? -- Erik Reuter http://www.erikreuter.net/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
