Maurice Kinal wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

 MK> Hey Roy!

> Maurice Kinal wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:
>> Hey Roy!
>> It depends on what they're trying to do.
>> If we're talking about what already happened then they already won.
>> They no longer have to actually do anything to disrupt our society.
> Maybe,  I'm not so sure.  Are you referring to the way the economy has been
> going mostly?

 MK> Errrr ... no but now that you mention it ... Actually I was 
 MK> thinking about how every time a tape is releaed or some rumour 
 MK> about possible hijackings, etc. then people stay home, don't 
 MK> travel, etc. 

I dunno,  when we decided a couple of times this summer to take off we
didn't have any hesitation in doing so.  OTOH,  we didn't fly either time, 
and I *won't* these days.

 MK> Then agin all that arguably does have impact on the economy. 

Yeah,  the airlines aren't doing all that well.

 MK> How do you measure that though?  The economy wasn't doing that 
 MK> great before 9/11.  Airlines were already having financial 
 MK> troubles before their hardware became weapons.  That is a tough 
 MK> call. 

True.

 MK> However, given an increased public awareness on how fragile 
 MK> security matters are it could be said that terrorism was highly 
 MK> effective and that a simple threat is enough without actually 
 MK> having to follow through on that threat.  Also bringing the fight 
 MK> to the Middle East may have been a healthy part of the strategy. 
 MK> Arguably, sending troops there might be playing into the terrorists
 MK> hands.

I don't know.  I have a lot of trouble putting myself into the mindset of
those folks,  and can't really speculate on what their motivations might
be.

> My attitude toward that is wait-and-see at this point in time.

 MK> Many share that attitude.

> I do feel that a lot of the old assumptions don't hold true any more,  for
> whatever that's worth,  but then I'm not sure how much they ever did.

 MK> Most of us are in that boat, methinks.

Yeah,  probably.  But then wanting people to look harder at what's going on
is something I've thought a good idea since the sixties!

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