oaf@mit-vax.UUCP (Oded Feingold) (10/09/86)
>Maybe we should wipe out Paris. After all, France is the ONLY country to >ever explicitly admit direct responsibility for a terrorist act... [Bruce Kirby] ------------------------------ Not to change the subject, but although I'm a Greenpeace sympa- thizer, I don't call France's action "terrorist." Bombing the Rainbow Warrior was their way of keeping it from sailing into Muroroa atoll and forcing the French to sink the ship, fully manned, by conducting their bomb test. That was Greenpeace's proclaimed mission, though presumably they expected the French navy to board and divert the ship enroute, preferably on the high seas - blatant piracy. The French tried to finesse their way around that embarrassment, but by great bad luck the first limpet mine brought Perreira down to see what was happening, and the second killed him. Too clever by half is what they were. [Like, ONE decent explosion should have done the job nicely, no? They don't make sappers like they useta.] If Greenpeace was clever, they could have upped the ante by guard- ing the ship with their OWN frogmen. Then the question would be whe- ther the French were ready to kill the guards. I think not ("Hey, our guard is gone, someone must have been messing with the boat - call the cops and the newspapers,") but it'd be dicey to go for it. Presumably you'd make it known the boat was guarded, since anyone encountering underwater opposition would shoot or slash to kill - hard to play pat- tycake with unknown assailants 10 meters down. [I'd better quit -- this is way too much fun. Who says nerds ain't bloodthirsty?] My sense of justice sez the saboteurs shoulda been busted for bun- gling and gotten a year or two for clumsiness. In effect, that's what happened, though it took a little nastiness among the French and New Zealand governments, and some French pleading afterward, to carry it off. I don't care whose career at the Deuxieme bureau was hurt. > I mean...you want to know if I'm moral enough to join the army, burn > women, kids, houses and villages, after being a litterbug? > - A. Guthrie ------------------------------ Yes! -- Oded A. Feingold MIT AI Lab 545 Tech Square Cambridge, Mass. 02139 {allegra|ihnp4!mit-eddie}!mit-vax!oaf OAF@OZ.AI.MIT.EDU 617-253-8598