[Dr. Frank fan]

But the Salman Pak thing is kind of amusing: it is alleged that Saddam trained terrorists to hijack planes using box- cutters there. I think it is much more likely that the terrorists thought that part up themselves without any training.

It's very touching how you're willing to forgive any involvement Saddam may have had in such training, as long as the technology / ideas used in the attack which resulted was sufficiently lo-tech. "Yeah, maybe Saddam provided a training base for 'em, but really, they could've thought that up themselves anyway. So let's cut Saddam some slack."

To me, the important questions are, Is Saddam our enemy? Does he try to attack us? Or help people to attack us? If so, then I don't give a rat's ass what the surrogates use to attack us; it's the attacking that's the issue here.

It's not clear what the issue is, to you. Besides making sure we don't attack Saddam, of course.

[palmer]

"Yeah, maybe Saddam provided a training base for 'em, but really, they could've thought that up themselves anyway. So let's cut Saddam some slack."

I meant to say that it is laughable that anyone would train anyone else in how to hijack aircraft by slicing throats. That requires indoctrination of the kind that small groups of religious fanatics are able to provide, similar to cults: controlling the person's life completely, indoctrinating them 24/7, etc. The claim that Saddam did that at a base in the desert is ridiculous.