Terrorism, WMDs

[ewx]

The BBC reports an attack on the South Korean Daegu underground. The lone perpetrator seems to have just used fire, fueled by petrol or something, and killed at least 100 people. It's not reported how many are injured but alive.

In comparison when the Aum cult attacked the Tokyo underground using sarin, a nerve gas, there were many people performing the operation and they only killed twelve people. On the other hand, thousands suffered more or less unpleasant direct and indirect side effects.

I'm also reminded of the once fairly common meme that the best place to be if the cold war went hot was near a target: it'd be over quickly for you.

Perhaps the terror we associated with NBC weapons is to do with what happens when they don't kill you: the debilitation from being poisoned, the radiation sickness, the ostracism ("he's the one from that weird attack").

Comments

Fear of the unknown

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's almost certainly part of it.