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posted by martyb on Sunday May 07 2017, @01:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the disarm-the-terrorists dept.

Leprosy is bacterial. In addition to curing leprosy with antibiotics, we also have anti-biotic resistant leprosy. What prevents a terrorist from deliberately infecting themself with leprosy and then engaging in promiscuous activity? How would a city like San Francisco, Washington DC, Paris or Berlin react to leprosy? When leprosy has a long incubation period, are we certain that leprosy isn't spreading already?

martyb: I was debating whether or not to run this story; from the Wikipedia page, "Contrary to popular belief, it is not highly contagious." But, there is more to this than just antibiotic-resistant leprosy. It invites discussion as to other agents with delayed response that could be employed. In addition, given a terrorist's intention to affect some other group, what options do they have which would affect that group without also adversely affecting their own group? How many of their own group are people willing to "harm" in the pursuit of harm to another group?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @12:53PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @12:53PM (#505814)

    It's been years since I read up on leprosy. But, it's not immediately fatal, if it is fatal at all. Many people live nearly normal lives, if more miserably than life would have been without leprosy. To be spread effectively, someone has to have it, and having it makes you "unclean". Those people most likely to want to spread the disease happen to be Muslim. Muslims are obsessed with their own idea of clean and unclean. Since no Muslim wants to be unclean, let alone die unclean, it's highly unlikely that Muslims will be contracting the disease to spread it amont the infidels.

    You need to refresh your Islamic lore then. Dying in the name of Allah is akin to a super-confession in Christianity, all your sins regardless of how grave they were will instantly be wiped and you are guaranteed a golden ticket to heaven. This is why you see things like oh-so-righteous mujahadin engaging in all kinds of debauchery shortly before they blow themselves up.

  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 07 2017, @04:19PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday May 07 2017, @04:19PM (#505879) Journal

    You're mostly right - but Muslims fear being unclean. Those Kurds, and their female fighters? They have shown ISIS fighters running from battles that were going in their favor, just because they discovered that there were girls shooting at them. Whether it be doctrine, or just some superstition that has crept into the belief, grown men fear being killed by a woman. It seems that they believe it makes them unworthy of paradise, or some such nonsense.

    I don't understand it, I can only go by what I've heard and read.

    https://nypost.com/2014/09/19/isis-fighters-terrified-of-being-killed-by-female-troops/ [nypost.com]
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-are-afraid-of-girls-kurdish-female-fighters-believe-they-have-an-unexpected-advantage-fighting-a6766776.html [independent.co.uk]
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/photos/female-yazidi-kurdish-soldiers-fight-back-isis-38882652/image-38883734 [go.com] (that link is just pics, not much info in it)

    The Peshmerga offer an explanation here, as to why they wear makeup on the battlefield. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/female-kurd-soldiers-fighting-isis-8732664 [mirror.co.uk] The women feel better, because they know they are pretty, and DAESH fears them more. And, some (not all) of the Peshmerga are damned good lookers, too. Unfortunately, I've not found any pics of the Yazidi that are very flattering. They haven't bought into the makeup bit, at the least. At worst, their army only recruits homely women.