> And, presumably, the Imperium puts some amount of cultural emphasis on not being a genocidal planet-wrecking monster.

I believe you're thinking of the Zhodani. :)

The Imperium demonstrably (based on canonical background) has about as many psychopaths and radical terrorist organizations per capita as Earth does today. Even if 99.9% of sophonts are effectively incapable of such atrocities, that leaves billions in the Imperial population who are quite capable, given the opportunity.

On Sat, Jul 25, 2015 at 5:05 PM, Grimmund <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

On Sat, Jul 25, 2015 at 5:23 PM, Craig Berry <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

Of course, on the third hand, the US was "surprised" by the use of jetliners as cruise missiles on 9/11, despite two preceding well-known fictional portrayals of the specific building-as-target idea that I can think of offhand,.not to mention the use of kamikaze aircraft against our fleet in WWII.

Most of NYC is a no-fly zone due to a bomber hitting the Empire State building in '45.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-25_Empire_State_Building_crash

Multiple intelligence briefs had suggested an attack on the US, including highjacking aircraft, but I don't think any of them suggested suicide crews using highjacked aircraft as air-to-ground missiles.

Back to topic, presumably, most larger systems have fairly competent in-system traffic control and defenses.

And, presumably, the Imperium puts some amount of cultural emphasis on not being a genocidal planet-wrecking monster.

Dan

--

"Any sufficiently advanced parody is indistinguishable from a genuine kook." -Alan Morgan

----- The Traveller Mailing List Archives at http://archives.simplelists.com/tml Report problems to xxxxxx@travellercentral.com To unsubscribe from this list please goto http://www.simplelists.com/confirm.php?u=PltOdItWBSgOP4y0Q6abkGbDI1eus0lz

Craig Berry (http://google.com/+CraigBerry)
"Eternity is in love with the productions of time." - William Blake