A Positive Program

Luke Weiger lweiger at umich.edu
Fri Sep 21 19:59:32 PDT 2001



> > And absolutely no hope of deterring future terrorism.
> .
> Without endorsing Carrol's proposal, do you really think it's possible to
> "deter" suicide terrorists? How exactly do you do this? If they're willing
> to die in a fiery inferno, how will war, bombs or collateral damage deter
> them?
>
> Seth

Good point. I should've substituted "prevent" for "deter." There's at least one possible way I know that may prevent future terrorism: kill the terrorists (although as others have pointed out this is far from a certainty). Of course, it's an open question as to whether more misery would result from that course of action than would be prevented. I'm leaning towards an equivocal "yes," especially with Bush's premptory declaration war against an enemy we haven't even conclusively identified.

-- Luke



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