2ltben
06-04-2007, 06:45 AM
Honestly, this is the biggest dog and pony show I've ever seen the executive branch jump on and milk for all its worth. Seriously, I actually laughed when I heard the crap they were putting out about this. It isn't a failure in a political or anti-terror sense, the failure comes from some pretty simple physics and chemistry.
The story the executive branch is putting out is that the explosives would blow up all of the oil tanks, the entire pipeline, and every airplane that was fueling at the time.
In the land I live in called reality, this just isn't possible. Pipelines and fuel hoses carry no oxygen and have no room for vapor, if they did it would completely negate the principle of pressure. By blowing a hole in the tanks, they may, if they were empty, create a nice pretty fireball that wouldn't have spread, which would have killed those in the immediate area. But the pipeline, absolutely not. The metal would blow off and the oil would come rushing out, but it would stop there.
By bombing the fuel infrastructure they didn't wish to impose a bodycount, they wished to disrupt the supply of fuel itself. The goal was not that of death and terror, but rather to disrupt the economy and impose yet more security on airport terminals across America.
The story the executive branch is putting out is that the explosives would blow up all of the oil tanks, the entire pipeline, and every airplane that was fueling at the time.
In the land I live in called reality, this just isn't possible. Pipelines and fuel hoses carry no oxygen and have no room for vapor, if they did it would completely negate the principle of pressure. By blowing a hole in the tanks, they may, if they were empty, create a nice pretty fireball that wouldn't have spread, which would have killed those in the immediate area. But the pipeline, absolutely not. The metal would blow off and the oil would come rushing out, but it would stop there.
By bombing the fuel infrastructure they didn't wish to impose a bodycount, they wished to disrupt the supply of fuel itself. The goal was not that of death and terror, but rather to disrupt the economy and impose yet more security on airport terminals across America.