The alleged terror plot to use liquid explosive to bomb planes flying out of the UK threw up the word 'unimaginable' this week. To use in context by London's Deputy Police Commissioner, 'we are confident we've prevented an attempt to commit mass murder on an unimaginable scale'.
I'm sorry, but my imagination can completely think up a scenario where three planes are bombed over the Atlantic every hour for three hours - especially in light of the fact that there was a similar plan to bomb twelve planes over the Pacific in the 90s. It would have been unimaginable to have happened in that Seinfeldesque 'decade about nothing', but all our imaginations expanded a heck of a lot during and after September 11.
It was unimaginable to think of an entire American city flooded by a hurricane, or would be unimaginable to have a nuclear weapon attack, or a release of plague or something. Actually, I take that back - to think of a cup worth of Iraqi anthrax in a city subway system was actively encouraged at the United Nations before that particular invasion, as was the concept of Saddam with nukes. Weapons of mass destruction anyone? Anyone?
Planes being blown up, even multiple targets, is very imaginable. After seeing the chaos in London on Thursday, also imaginable is an attack on crowded airports, which would screw the travel industry just as much as bringing actual planes down - without the bombers having to go through security checks.
The Twin Towers came down less than five years ago, but it seems another lifetime, a long time in a galaxy far far away. Western politics has thrived on an environment of fear, the concept of being with us or against us, neutering opposition by calling it unpatriotic, and refusing to negotiate with people or countries you disagree with. Or perhaps withered is the better word.
Invading countries and killing people is not the way to win a war on a thing such as terror. For every guerilla, insurgent or terrorist killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon or elsewhere, another person will get radicalised enough to join up - especially if civilians are getting killed, raped or tortured. The go to plan of getting the military involved has been tried, but where this has been tested it hasn't quite gone according to the initial plans, let alone considering any new threats (perhaps Iran or North Korea).
Over the past five years, our imaginations have been given too much free rein for much of anything not to have been thought of.
Paul
I'm sorry, but my imagination can completely think up a scenario where three planes are bombed over the Atlantic every hour for three hours - especially in light of the fact that there was a similar plan to bomb twelve planes over the Pacific in the 90s. It would have been unimaginable to have happened in that Seinfeldesque 'decade about nothing', but all our imaginations expanded a heck of a lot during and after September 11.
It was unimaginable to think of an entire American city flooded by a hurricane, or would be unimaginable to have a nuclear weapon attack, or a release of plague or something. Actually, I take that back - to think of a cup worth of Iraqi anthrax in a city subway system was actively encouraged at the United Nations before that particular invasion, as was the concept of Saddam with nukes. Weapons of mass destruction anyone? Anyone?
Planes being blown up, even multiple targets, is very imaginable. After seeing the chaos in London on Thursday, also imaginable is an attack on crowded airports, which would screw the travel industry just as much as bringing actual planes down - without the bombers having to go through security checks.
The Twin Towers came down less than five years ago, but it seems another lifetime, a long time in a galaxy far far away. Western politics has thrived on an environment of fear, the concept of being with us or against us, neutering opposition by calling it unpatriotic, and refusing to negotiate with people or countries you disagree with. Or perhaps withered is the better word.
Invading countries and killing people is not the way to win a war on a thing such as terror. For every guerilla, insurgent or terrorist killed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon or elsewhere, another person will get radicalised enough to join up - especially if civilians are getting killed, raped or tortured. The go to plan of getting the military involved has been tried, but where this has been tested it hasn't quite gone according to the initial plans, let alone considering any new threats (perhaps Iran or North Korea).
Over the past five years, our imaginations have been given too much free rein for much of anything not to have been thought of.
Paul
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