34.    My husband is in the military. He thinks that future wars will be terrorist wars. America's military superiority will make it impossible to fight us conventionally, with tanks and planes.  Our enemies will  resort to attacking civilians with remote controlled explosions in cities and towns. That, combined with political/psychological pressure., Vietnam was an early example,  is how they'll try to get their way.My husband believes the Middle East is a test. If the Israelis , with all their technology, can't get a handle on it, terrorism will have proved itself. The Palestinians will have shown that a strong military can't protect a country. It'll be a signal. Watch out America, watch out Europe.     
      - Claudia  K.  Allamandola  San Diego.

35.    Islamists detest Israel. They see it as the West's vanguard on Islam's doorstep. On top of that the Koran says, Jews are a vanquished, superseded people not entitled to equality with Muslims, never mind sovereign rights. Yet those 5 million Jews keep trumping 250 million Arabs in every arena from science to show biz, from growing crops to fighting wars. That has brewed a powerful rage.
If that hate can be used to protect us, by making every attack on Americans a blessing for the Israelis, why the hell not?
                                                Ronald Wilchynski, Chicago Ill.

37.    We had a Town Meeting and our middle school principal brought up this CAT idea, or one almost like it.  At first most of the meeting thought it was nonsense, except for two of our volunteer fire men who said nothing should be left untried.
    But then the grandmother of my dentist's wife, who's a DAR, shuffled over to the mike.  She's 89 and walks with two canes, but is yet tall and straight as a pencil.
    She spoke very softly and slowly and said: if God offers us a way to protect ourselves by frustrating evil, but the devils in us reject this shield, then we will be rightly punished.
    Nobody answered her. The matter wasn't put to a vote.           
            - Susan Kenworth (with a daughter in the Coast Guard), Waterbury Vermont

36.    We've been feeding the Israelites kitty $3 billion a year since 1979. That's too much for too long. It was meant to help them after they gave up the Sinai buffer and their defense costs spiked. But now their economy is just fine and they can pay their own bills.
Cut out those giant grants. Then, maybe, CAT awards in response to specific attacks might begin to make sense.
William Rosen, Troy NY

38.    It's a take on - the enemy of my enemy - rationale.    Even if I can't find you, if you hurt me you will be making your worst enemy very happy.
    Very Middle Eastern . It doesn't grab us - but it'll grab them, by the liver.  -  Sabina Barbaroli,  Regina  Saskatchewan

39.                          You Dumb Jerks.
    This war is going to cost hundreds of billions. That's the bite into our economy; that's what it'll cost the taxpayers. And  that is what's at stake for the military industrial complex
    You think they are going to let a scheme like yours, that can close down terrorism with, at bottom, a dirt cheap Sword of Damocles, spoil everything.? You naive souls.
How do you  suppose your fund is going to come into being? The rich Jews are cowards. The Congress only understands guns. Private philanthropies have all the imagination of a cabbage.patch. Businessmen and bankers will giggle at your scheme.
    Nobody is going to start you because nobody is going to believe you're going  anywhere. Go down to the street corner and rattle a tin cup. That's the closest your Fund will come to a dime. 
                                                - Thomas A Carew, Cornwall NY

40.  Bravo !  Everyone always says, terrorists only strengthen their enemy.
    CAT however, actualy makes that piety God's truth. It scratches that truth deep into the terrorists' skin. It does not draw blood, nevertheless it penetrates to where they live.
    CAT is a translation service. Given enough wattage it willl  make the terrorists understand. - Annalouise M., Capri Italy

41.    Look, we are all frightened .

    Not just the Europeans but also the Japanese. Because these fanatics are insane. The moment one voices opposition one immediately must worry about bombs in trams and department stores. Moreover, they have the oil. They can make us pay dearly, both in blood and through the nose.

  But if Europe (and others) is shown a vehicle through which to fight anonymously, I believe there will be strong participation.
                  - André Kummer, Geneva CH

42.  Your link is a great idea but one problem. Why wouldn't one group set up a bombing of their own people for $100 million in benefits? Lose 10 people, mourn, but get enough to further the cause immensely. You are idealistic but don't understand human motivation that well, especially those from rather undeveloped cultures with primitive minds.
- Randal Chung, Freeburg PA

43.    CAT would force terrorists to seek anonymity. Sure, they already assume false identities while preparing for a job, but they expect credit afterwards. (Hence those farewell videos.) But CAT would rob them of being celebrated for their brave self-sacrifice, i.e., of a major part of their motivation.  Take just ordinary soldiers, how much heart can they have for exploits for which they and their outfit can never claim credit? And they have a need to have their hated enemy know whose fist it is that is meeting out the pain.  The need to act anonymously would remove much of their incentive. (BTW, bodies are always identified.)
                                                  - Linda Seymour, Lockney Texas

44.    Sybil (#18) stated the crux of the problem with CAT. First, you can't pay out in cash because cash can be used to buy more weapons and the cycle will never end. So the pay outs must instead be earmarked for ending poverty, illiteracy and disease. This will result in many more donors to the cause. The other problem cited is that these suicidal groups will simply attack themselves in order to get the payout for their own cause. This would mean only making a pay out if it can be reliably determined who made the attack.
But regardless of that, isn't CAT what happens anyway? Some place like New York City is attacked and there's $105 billion in damage. So people pledge $1 billion to charities for the victims. The enemy is not going to be deterred by this charity though if it's like a band-aid on an amputation. They can always inflict more damage than the charity can repair.
The discussion is good though. What about donations to beef up security at known weak points that aren't yet protected by the government? The weak points are always going to be the next target. The more weak points protected, the less damage that can be inflicted.    - M.B., U.S.

45.  You have filched my idea. As a struggling student seeking a solution for Kashmir I told everyone of this very method, including The Times of India. They will testify to this. You have staged a hijacking like a terrorist whom you pretend to oppose.

Please pay me 100,000 pound sterling - or see your theft exposed in the press and the court of law. The judge will not be so lenient as I.

Consider, I am deserving and have only a struggling food and utensils establishment. If you wish to reimburse me in weekly payments that will be acceptable.

With  respect and  friendship,            A. S.,  New Delhi

46.    in the middle east "cat" could only work if the eu, which is financing the palestinians, cooperated.  they won't.

the eu has its own agenda, part of which is playing the m/e conflict against the usa

it's most of all the french, the belgians, the austrians, the swedes i.e.,the biggest ww 2 collaborators.     
                                                OLD TIMER  miami beach

47.      I saw this site last September. Thought it was off the wall. Have come around. Its #7. That's got legs. The terrorist shoving his folk's $$ into Satan's pockets, has teeth. He'd be biting his own liver.

It could work in the Middle East where everything is visceral. It would pit the suicide bomber's desire for paradise against the money clutched by those staying behind. It would pit the Palestinian people against Hamas and Jihad and Hitzbullah and everyone keen on fighting.

But the inducement must be huge. It must be palpable: a torrent of cash whose delicious spray everyone can see and feel. They'll also see it denied them, by every act of violence. They don't just lose their windfall, they give it knowingly to Satan.

That would keep those guys in line, hold 'em by their jewels. Excruciate them at every transgression. And without a single bomb or bullet.  Okay!                Ken Murphy,  -  Kentucky U S of A

48.    Here's why your plan, and similar schemes that operate on such a basis, won't work:
The plan has the potential to provoke individuals who otherwise are peaceful and law-abiding to commit horrific acts in order to benefit monetarily.
Example: you say "A staggering gift to the NAACP would punish white supremacist bombers of a black church".
In the above scenario it is possible that a deranged NAACP member would deliberatly bomb a church, in the misguided belief that the cash payoff would out-balance the loss of life/property.
By the way, insurance companies realized many decades ago the folly of such a reward system. A person can't be named as a beneficiary of a life-insurance policy unless they have a bonafide relationship to the insured. When in doubt believe the actuaries- their policy is based on mathematics            Frog3

49.      Frog's objection doesn't hold.  Sure, self-mutilation  in order to qualify for a bonanza is possible. But, as Frog's reference reminds us, that wrinkle has always shadowed the insurance business. Occasional attempts to hoodwink it has not invalidated that industry. It has found ways to identify and punish most swindles.
The insurance business requires a beneficiary claim. The logic of the terrorism business requires perpetrators to take credit. An unacknowledged act would look smelly. Awards could be withheld until the circumstances are clear.
Besides, an NAACP arsonist masquerading as a white supremacist could not predict the recipient of the retaliatory bonanza. That might be an Asian group or an organization opposed to guns, or one promoting immigration from Haiti, etc.
Finally, such deception attempts would themselves merit a chilling CAT punishment. I.e., a self inflicted  black church arson could produce a bonanza for the white supremacist side.                Andrew Lee  (Piano Player),    Hong Kong.

50.    Palestinians depend on foreign money. They cannot survive in the present without it. They do not have a future without it. Should all their income flow through a sluice gate that closed with every act of terror, Palestinians would become terrorism's fiercest opponents.
      Those feeding the Palestinians have the power to keep terrorism alive, or to end it. Americans, Europeans and Arabs can end terror now. Do they want to, is the question.
          -  Robert Salzberger, Citrus County Fl.orida

51.    Set up a 30 billion dollar int'l fund right now in the Palestine National Authority. Weekly disbursements over the next three years, for the three million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. No strings attached.
      However, every suicide bombing, whether successful or  not, would  divert $100 million from that fund to Israel. For every person killed or seriously wounded an additional $10 million would be diverted. Do it!
      By heaven, it would  stop the madness.
                                        - Else Forst, Sunnyside NY

52.    The Associated Press reported on March 20, 02 that Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz proposed that Israel circulate a list of specific locations that would be demolished if Palestinians carried out attacks.
"It will announce with precision exactly what it will do in response to the next act of terrorism -- for example, the destruction of a small village which has been used as a base for terrorist operations."
"The terrorist has to know that when he gets on the bus and blows up Israeli citizens, he's also blowing up buildings in his village. If any one can think of a better way to do this, I'm open,'' Dershowitz said in an interview.

CAT is a better way (a non-Lidice way).  - Sandy Tannenberg,  Cambridge

53.      Today, May 19,  VP Cheney said:  It is "almost certain" a fresh strike could be in the works.  "It's almost impossible to erect a 100 percent perfect defense (especially) If they can keep the people who actually are carrying out the attack in the dark." 
            But the USA could put Al Quida on notice, IN ADVANCE, of  the disagreeable CAT consequence to any successful attack on America (even if they get away scot free)!
          Let them know, any attack will directly profit their enemies. Let them realize, they will be shooting themselves in the stomache, even if they are not apprehended, even if they slip directly into paradise. Let them know NOW, their work, their cunning, their self-sacrifice will benefit the people they hate most.
          Even if we have no 100% sure way to stop OBL's men, we can give them pause. We can put on their shoulders the heavy burden, and down their throats the nauseating knowledge: that they will be helping Jews (That's the one thing that can scare them.)  -    Kenneth    Pontiac MI

54  Commercial airliners will be falling out of the skies.  Shoulder-fired  missiles capable of overtaking supersonic aircraft are now ubiquitous. Even countries like Pakistan, China, Yugoslavia and Egypt are manufacturing them.  Hundreds, if not thousands of these "fire and forget" weapons, supplied as certified rounds, requiring no field testing or direct support, are in the hands or within the reach of terrorists.
  Twenty years ago, the Afghans fired  340 Stingers  at  communist aircraft and scored 269 kills. As a result military aircraft and planes like Air Force One were  outfitted with flares, metallic confetti or chemical powders to draw missiles away from their targets.
    But the latest  Strellas and Stingers incorporate significant countermeasure immunity. They can bring lumbering commercial jetliners down without any trouble.
    Our airliners, which fly daily in and out of all the world's hundreds of airfields, are hopelessly exposed.  It is too easy to smuggle these 35 pound weapons into any country. They are too accurate and simple to use and available. There is no way to protect our commercial aviation against them.
    Except maybe CAT.
    If handled right CAT could intimidate terrorists who want to shoot down planes.
    But I fear CAT will only be considered after our commercial aviation system has crashed.

A Concerned Frequent Flyer.

55.    America is facing a direct and imminent threat to its cities. The Vice President and the FBI Director both  have made it clear, new and possibly more terrible  9/11s are in the offing. Dirty nuclear explosions may cost the Americans hundreds of thousands of lives. They believe erroneously, there is no defence.
    Grab the Islamists by their Mecca and Medina.. Let them know, an attack on the US will mean the people of Medina will have a week to evacuate. their town.Thereafter, the place will be made uninhabitable. If that does not suffice, a dirty bomb will put Medina out of business. Not for a month, but for the next four thousand years. Mecca can be accorded similar treatment.
    That is doable. Harm to Mecca and or Medina, even without loss of life, is as unacceptable to Islamists as is the death of thousands  to Americans. This may be mad, but MAD worked once before. It would be even madder to do nothing..                                  Roger L. Key.      Manchester UK

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