New Wave of Paranoia Due...

[Vermilion]

Britain under new threat from car bombs...

Anybody else heard about this?

A car bomb planted in central London would have caused "carnage" if it had exploded, police sources have said.

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[oggbashan]

Yes.

What's new?

London has been under threat from terrorist bombs since the Nihilists and Bolsheviks of the early twentieth century.

Any Londoner is more likely to be killed or injured in a traffic accident than by a terrorist attack.

Og

 

[Vermilion]

Yes.

What's new?

London has been under threat from terrorist bombs since the Nihilists and Bolsheviks of the early twentieth century.

Any Londoner is more likely to be killed or injured in a traffic accident than by a terrorist attack.

Og

It's more the damage it will do to morale, tourism, economy etc etc though, isn;t it - all the results from the devestation and loss of life, however minimal compared to RTAs...

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[jeanne_d_artois]

It's more the damage it will do to morale, tourism, economy etc etc though, isn;t it - all the results from the devestation and loss of life, however minimal compared to RTAs...

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Even with the terrorist threat, London is safer than many cities.

Nowhere is safe from terrorists, not even Mid-West USA.

Jeanne (for Og)

 

[Eluard]

Yes.

What's new?

London has been under threat from terrorist bombs since the Nihilists and Bolsheviks of the early twentieth century.

Any Londoner is more likely to be killed or injured in a traffic accident than by a terrorist attack.

Og

The trouble with this crazy logic is that the traffic accidents are still there. The terrorist bombs don't replace the other threat, they add to it. So is it really a shruggable matter that even more people will die?

 

[damppanties]

Even with the terrorist threat, London is safer than many cities.

Yes.

Not to say your concern is any lesser V, but I saw this thread earlier and wondered what was it about an unexploded bomb that could cause anxiety or even be worthy of being commented upon, when I read of people dying and bombs exploding, trains derailing, people killing each other in the name of religion, children being swept away by water from rainfall or being attacked by dogs in my own city everyday. *shrug* Perhaps I've become immune to bad news.

Just a point of view I think.

 

[Adi87]

Yes.

Not to say your concern is any lesser V, but I saw this thread earlier and wondered what was it about an unexploded bomb that could cause anxiety or even be worthy of being commented upon, when I read of people dying and bombs exploding, trains derailing, people killing each other in the name of religion, children being swept away by water from rainfall or being attacked by dogs in my own city everyday. *shrug* Perhaps I've become immune to bad news.

Just a point of view I think.

seconding your POV.

 

[R. Richard]

Britain under new threat from car bombs...

If somebody is really trying to get you, you may not be paranoid.

 

[Vermilion]

Yes.

Not to say your concern is any lesser V, but I saw this thread earlier and wondered what was it about an unexploded bomb that could cause anxiety or even be worthy of being commented upon, when I read of people dying and bombs exploding, trains derailing, people killing each other in the name of religion, children being swept away by water from rainfall or being attacked by dogs in my own city everyday. *shrug* Perhaps I've become immune to bad news.

Just a point of view I think.

Well, I think my concern is more to do with what this signifies - who is trying to stir up trouble now, and why? A bomb like this, whilst far less serious unexploded, still has significance.
Especially to me, when most of my close friends and some family members live and/or work in central London...

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[oggbashan]

The trouble with this crazy logic is that the traffic accidents are still there. The terrorist bombs don't replace the other threat, they add to it. So is it really a shruggable matter that even more people will die?

What I was saying is that the threat of terrorism has been with us for a very long time, over 100 years in London. The discovery of a bomb hasn't increased that threat. It is something that has to be accepted as part of modern life.

If terrorism, by all the terrorist groups, could be defeated, then the threat would be eliminated. That is unlikely. Animal rights, homophobic and many other groups and individual nutcases have the capacity to produce and deliver explosives.

In the US, anti-abortion terrorists attack and kill those conducting abortions. In the UK, anti-vivisectionists can be as lethal as Al-Queda. The cause doesn't seem to matter. Killing and injuring ordinary people is just one of the methods of drawing attention to the cause.

The way to defeat the terrorists' aim to disrupt society is to live normally, watchful perhaps, but not deterred from doing whatever you want to do by a terrorist threat.

Og

 

[Zeb_Carter]

What I was saying is that the threat of terrorism has been with us for a very long time, over 100 years in London. The discovery of a bomb hasn't increased that threat. It is something that has to be accepted as part of modern life.

If terrorism, by all the terrorist groups, could be defeated, then the threat would be eliminated. That is unlikely. Animal rights, homophobic and many other groups and individual nutcases have the capacity to produce and deliver explosives.

In the US, anti-abortion terrorists attack and kill those conducting abortions. In the UK, anti-vivisectionists can be as lethal as Al-Queda. The cause doesn't seem to matter. Killing and injuring ordinary people is just one of the methods of drawing attention to the cause.

The way to defeat the terrorists' aim to disrupt society is to live normally, watchful perhaps, but not deterred from doing whatever you want to do by a terrorist threat.

Og

Here, here!
Worry about it? Yes.
Be ever watchful? Yes.
Let it change the way you conduct your life? No.

 

[Eluard]

What I was saying is that the threat of terrorism has been with us for a very long time, over 100 years in London. The discovery of a bomb hasn't increased that threat. It is something that has to be accepted as part of modern life.

If terrorism, by all the terrorist groups, could be defeated, then the threat would be eliminated. That is unlikely. Animal rights, homophobic and many other groups and individual nutcases have the capacity to produce and deliver explosives.

In the US, anti-abortion terrorists attack and kill those conducting abortions. In the UK, anti-vivisectionists can be as lethal as Al-Queda. The cause doesn't seem to matter. Killing and injuring ordinary people is just one of the methods of drawing attention to the cause.

The way to defeat the terrorists' aim to disrupt society is to live normally, watchful perhaps, but not deterred from doing whatever you want to do by a terrorist threat.

Og

I'm sorry, I think your thinking on this is just wrong. You seem to think that if people die then it doesn't matter if more people will die; and that if there is a threat then it doesn't matter if there is more of a threat. People say this sort of thing to themselves as a way of getting on with their lives — and I understand that. But it is a form of self-delusion. The fact is that the feeling of threat (one's own estimate of how dangerous it is to be in London) has just gone up enormously. (Just an example: this would factor in to my decision as to whether to visit London with my son in the next year. I now wouldn't.)

 

[oggbashan]

I'm sorry, I think your thinking on this is just wrong. You seem to think that if people die then it doesn't matter if more people will die; and that if there is a threat then it doesn't matter if there is more of a threat. People say this sort of thing to themselves as a way of getting on with their lives — and I understand that. But it is a form of self-delusion. The fact is that the feeling of threat (one's own estimate of how dangerous it is to be in London) has just gone up enormously. (Just an example: this would factor in to my decision as to whether to visit London with my son in the next year. I now wouldn't.)

That is what the terrorists want to achieve - fear.

The threat was there before the bomb was found. Finding the bomb hasn't increased the threat at all.

Your perception that London is dangerous is statistically unsound. Sydney or Melbourne may be threatened by terrorists just as much as London.

Who would have thought that Bali was dangerous? Some of the experts who understood Indonesia's politics might have guessed, but the ordinary tourist had no idea.

The fear of terrorism is worse than the reality.

Og

 

[Zeb_Carter]

That is what the terrorists want to achieve - fear.

The threat was there before the bomb was found. Finding the bomb hasn't increased the threat at all.

Your perception that London is dangerous is statistically unsound. Sydney or Melbourne may be threatened by terrorists just as much as London.

Who would have thought that Bali was dangerous? Some of the experts who understood Indonesia's politics might have guessed, but the ordinary tourist had no idea.

The fear of terrorism is worse than the reality.

Og

The fear is always worse than the reality.

And I'm not trying to say I'm not afraid, I just don't let that fear control the way I conduct my life.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Why is it that the Brits catch the "shoe bomber" on an air plane. They catch the plot to blow up six airliners in the sky. Now they catch two (as of this morning) cars filled with explosives. So why can't GW's Homeland Security catch anyone? - not even the 12-20 million (depending on the estimate you believe) illegal immigrants sneaking across the Mexican border.

 

[Vermilion]

Why is it that the Brits catch the "shoe bomber" on an air plane. They catch the plot to blow up six airliners in the sky. Now they catch two (as of this morning) cars filled with explosives. So why can't GW's Homeland Security catch anyone? - not even the 12-20 million (depending on the estimate you believe) illegal immigrants sneaking across the Mexican border.

Luck? This car bomb was only discovered through fluke...

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[rgraham666]

The fear is always worse than the reality.

And I'm not trying to say I'm not afraid, I just don't let that fear control the way I conduct my life.

Far too many people do though.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Luck? This car bomb was only discovered through fluke...

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Since the US spend many times the amount I would guess Homeland Security should have some amount of "luck" at one point during the past five years. It seems not. In stead they steal from the budget of FEMA and allow New Orleans. Go figure.

 

[Vermilion]

Since the US spend many times the amount I would guess Homeland Security should have some amount of "luck" at one point during the past five years. It seems not. In stead they steal from the budget of FEMA and allow New Orleans. Go figure.

Some rumours say such things were not just 'not spotted,' but engineered... not sure how much I buy into the conspiracy theories mind...

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[3113]

The fact is that the feeling of threat (one's own estimate of how dangerous it is to be in London) has just gone up enormously.

Gone down in my estimate. They *caught* this thing. It didn't explode. And they've caught other folk as well. That says more than other cities that haven't caught folk.

Now, granted, terrorists are more likely to pick a city where there's a statement to be made and a place that can cause the most damage to that city and the people in it. And in this regard, Og's comparison of foreign terrorists to anti-abortionists or animal rights activists are apples and oranges. The later can and might commit random acts of violence but they are unlikely to try to disrupt a major cities over and over again.

I mean really, are animal rights activists likely to bomb London subways over and over again? Probably not. They're more likely to try and bomb the headquarters of some chemical company.

But it is valid to say that any city can be threatened by anyone at anytime, and terrorists groups come and go. But not every city can prevent such threats. Those that can are "safer" than those that can't. London, so far, has a pretty darn good record of prevention.

I will say this in regards to paranoia, however. I suspect that these bomb threats are going to make Europe cut back on hiring people from the middle-east for cheap labor, and if I were from the middle-east, I'd be worried about my treatment in such places. This is going to increase profiling and bigotry, big time.

 

[scheherazade_79]

I think it's more worrying that they keep 'losing' terrorism suspects.

Solution - screw the tagging, the house arrests, the open jails etc, and just round the buggers up into a minibus, packed with the explosives they were planning to use on innocent people. Drive it to the middle of nowhere, and then detonate.

Cost to the taxpayer: £10 (for enough petrol to drive the minibus to the middle of nowhere)

 

[rgraham666]

And how do you determine that the people in the bus are the ones who deserve to be blown up?

What you resist, you become, Zade.

 

[scheherazade_79]

And how do you determine that the people in the bus are the ones who deserve to be blown up?

What you resist, you become, Zade.

Not in the mood, Rob.

 

[rgraham666]

So, I gather, you'll just find some people that look guilty and blow them up? That'll accomplish a lot.

I am in the mood.

By the way, seen V for Vendetta yet? You really should.

 

[scheherazade_79]

So, I gather, you'll just find some people that look guilty and blow them up? That'll accomplish a lot.

I am in the mood.

By the way, seen V for Vendetta yet? You really should.

I'll be booking your seat in the minibus if you keep going