BS: Missiles in residential areas: opinions?

Subject: RE: BS: Missiles in residential areas: opinions?
From: Stu
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 06:17 AM

I like the fact the MOD say it won't make the building a target. Doh. They've obviously never seen the The Guns of Navarone, or read any book about war.

Bloody effin' bloomin' flamin' olympics.

Subject: RE: BS: Missiles in residential areas: opinions?
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 05:43 AM

Terrorists in residential areas - opinions??

Subject: RE: BS: Missiles in residential areas: opinions?
From: GUEST,Backwoodsman at work sans cookie
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 05:35 AM

GUEST above was me. Sorry.

Subject: RE: BS: Missiles in residential areas: opinions?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 05:35 AM

Thanks for the links Penny.

Only one of your 8 links (the Daily Mail) makes any reference to the United States, saying that the US has privately raised concerns about security. At one point it was offering to send an aircraft carrier to the Thames and is preparing to send up to 1000 agents in the weeks before the games.

This is a long way from    Apparently, the US insisted ……….   , hence the need for salt.


DC

Subject: RE: BS: Missiles in residential areas: opinions?
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 05:32 AM

Isn't it another case of "Damned if they do, damned if they don't"?

If some nutcase flies a large plane into the main stadium, everyone will scream "Why didn't they anticipate this, and have the means ready to shoot it down?". Surely, doing **something** in anticipation of such an awful event is better than doing nothing?

It's highly unlikely, but don't think for one second that it couldn't happen - remember our astonishment when the second plane went into the WTC, and it bacame clear that it, and the first one, weren't accidents.

But I'm not sure that the roof of an ancient and dodgy-looking water tower is necessarily the best place to site a missile battery - maybe that one needs a re-think?

Subject: RE: BS: Missiles in residential areas: opinions?
From: Penny S.
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 05:26 AM

Might.

I dare say that pragmatism would comfort the survivors. Maybe, going back a bit, the Olympics should be held where people don't live. Are the Games worth putting the lives of anyone at risk? Are they worth politicians having to bear the burden of making that sort of decision.

I see that Athens and Beijing were also protected by missiles. (Study of Olympic security.) In the case of Athens, supplied by the States.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Missiles in residential areas: opinions?
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 05:03 AM

The attacking plane might be expected to fly into the stadium, killing thousands.
If exploded in the air, even over a built up area, fewer deaths might result.
The pragmatism of terror.

Subject: RE: BS: Missiles in residential areas: opinions?
From: Penny S.
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 05:03 AM

Odd, I posted more links than that.

Huffington Post

ITV

Metro

BBC again

And added...

Good enough? I shall have to change my style, apparently.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Missiles in residential areas: opinions?
From: Penny S.
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 04:51 AM

Daily Mail

News shopper

Guardian (Missed that one - hidden in the sports pages.

BBC

Subject: RE: BS: Missiles in residential areas: opinions?
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 04:38 AM

Apparently, the US insisted, .....

Any "fact" that begins with the word Apparently should be taken with a large dose of salt.


DC

Subject: RE: BS: Missiles in residential areas: opinions?
From: Penny S.
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 04:24 AM

And I'm not being anti-American, here. I'm being anti a mind set which makes some people so much more important than other people that their lives are not worth saving. I'm being anti the people who would shift the switch on the train track to kill the one person instead of the five instead of saying that the question is stupid, because it isn't going to happen. It happens to be the US government our government is shifting the blame to. I guess I'm anti-government when governments ignore that bit about governing being of the people, by the people, for the people.

Penny

Subject: BS: Missiles in residential areas: opinions?
From: Penny S.
Date: 30 Apr 12 - 04:18 AM

I haven't seen anything here about this issue. It does concern our friends in the West, as well as the UK.

Apparently, the US insisted, as a prerequisite for taking part in the Olympics, that there be missiles placed to protect the Games venues.

As a result, there are to be placements on Blackheath, Oxleas Woods and a privately owned residential building, plus at least three others not yet publicised, of batteries for missiles with a 10 mile range to be used, God forbid, to shoot down any aircraft threatening the Games. This without any consultation of local MPs, or permission sought of the residents.

Blackheath is, traditionally, the place where governments wipe out protesting rebels, so this may be historically appropriate. Oxleas Woods is close to a site chosen for a Fougasse projector to flame approaching German tanks during WWII, and of an ackack emplacement, so might have a precedent. The flats site is a water tower with dodgy brickwork.

Whatever, the range of the missiles means that if used, and if missing their target, they would probably land in a built up area. If they were to hit their target, it would come down in a built up area. If it were on a trajectory already for the stadium, it might well still hit it anyway.

The venues are crossed by planes heading for a) Heathrow, b) City airport, c) Essex. They change direction over London. The time frame during which any unusual change could be observed and acted on would be minute, probably much smaller than the infamous 4 minute warning of Soviet nuclear attack.

During WWII, planes were shot down over built up areas, doodlebugs (protodrones) redirected to areas south of London where they might hit people, but fewer people. We were at war, and all in it together.

This is not the same. It looks as if, at the dictate of a foreign power, our military are prepared to risk the lives of thousands of ordinary people by using inappropriate technology for a job when we are supposed to be celebrating.

Any opinions of this situation?

Penny