Umbrage at “intrepid”

I AM an avid fan of yours and your website. But I think you should refrain from language which may be interpreted as sympathetic to terrorists. It does not lend credibility or credence to your overall message. I quote:

“Hazard a guess that it spelt out in simple, credible language the reasons why Atta and his eighteen intrepid men were sacrificing themselves to attack Wall Street, the Pentagon, and the Capitol?”

I don’t think these punks were “intrepid”. “Cowardly” is more like it. I think people who kill innocent people or use innocent people’s lives as simple cannon fodder are nothing more than cowards. Terrorism is a desperate act by those who feel powerless and are too cowardly to attack those who directly threaten them. One should not describe these types of cowards as brave or “intrepid”.

I certainly hope that you don’t sympathize with these scoundrels. I don’t think you do and I don’t think you intentionally mean to portray these terrorists as heroes or martyrs or sympathetic characters. But I just ask that you try to refrain from language that might be interpreted as support for these terrorist scumbags.

Gene Mangrum
Nashville, TN

DAVID IRVING writes:HOW kind of you to write. If you read The 9/11 Commission Report then “intrepid” is the only word to describe the actions of these nineteen young men — in my view. I did not say “admirable,” I said: “Intrepid.”

Seizing control of a heavy airliner with a full load of fuel, cargo, and passengers and flying it deliberately into an “enemy” skyscraper takes more guts than launching a cruise missile from an aircraft carrier or submarine hundreds of miles away, or dropping cluster-bombs from an altitude of 30,000 feet or firing thousands of rounds of 50- caliber ammunition* into a village from a C-130 Spectre gunship, or … or … or … etc.

Would you deny the Japanese kamikaze airmen the description “intrepid”?

* Aubrey Soper corrects me on Friday, August 27, 2004 about the armament carried by the Spectre gunship: two M61 20mm Vulcan cannons with 3,000 rounds one L60 40mm Bofors cannon with 256 rounds one M102 105mm howitzer with 100 rounds one 25mm GAU-12 Gatling gun (1,800 rounds per minute) one L60 40mm Bofors cannon (100 shots per minute) and one M102 105mm cannon (6-10 rounds per minute)