Subject:
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Re: Conflict in the Middle East
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Mon, 8 Apr 2002 16:41:43 GMT
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Viewed:
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528 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks writes:
<snip>
> I think that terror is a tool consistent with a state of war. When people have
> no way other than suicide bombings to take a war to the enemy, what would you
> have them do?
<snip>
> I think they're terrorists because their goal is not to eliminate the enemy
> with such attacks, but to instill fear in the general populace. But I don't
> think they're repugnant for it. When these folks feel like they have an
> option, they will choose another path. No one wants to die. It seems, Frank,
> that you're saying that guerilla tactics are worse than more conventional war.
> How and why?
>
> Chris
In our culture, we are mostly brought up to believe that life is precious
and that suicide isn't a viable option.
We are shocked and dismayed when people kill themselves for reasons passing
understanding, and we look for answers to prevent suicides in the future. A
case in BC recently charged a few youths for taunting and bullying a fellow
student to the point where the student took her own life. A mother is
sueing Sony Entertainment right now because her son played EQ excessively
and something happened 'in game' and the kid killed himself.
These are issues regarding suicide that our culture deals with--we want to
find ways of preventing them.
If, however, your culture, from the moment you are born, teaches you to
hate, teaches you that the ultimate sacrifice you can do for your country is
to die in service of it, teaches you that if you die gloriously that you
will get '7 virgins and a mansion' (whatever) in the afterlife, do you
really think that these suicide bombers think what they're doing is a last
ditch effort, a worst case scenario?
Quote
> When these folks feel like they have an
> option, they will choose another path. No one wants to die.
I don't want to die. I *will* pick up a gun and defend my country, my
beliefs, though. I will not knowingly kill 'innocents' (don't get into
semantics about who's innocent and who isn't). These bombers are walking
into restaurants and blowing up women, kids, houses and villages all in the
name of their god, their teachings and their hatred for their enemy (and
getting the women in the afterlife). It has nothing to do with having their
collective backs against the wall.
They have options and the leaders *know* it. Why do you think you never
hear about the rulers of these factions/countries/whatever strapping bombs
to themselves and walking into buildings? Why do you never hear the leaders
really denouncing these acts as terrorist attacks and trying to stop them?
That's why I mentioned earlier that someone, at sometime, just has to say
'this ends here in this generation' It'll take a strong resolve to do it
but it *can* be done. Yes things happened in the far past and the
not-so-far past that could be deemed acts that require a response. But it
can stop. 'We're not going to kill, today (forgive the quote and get over
where it came from)'. It's a different path, a better solution and it
requires less killing.
The leaders don't *want* to do it. That's the rub.
Anyway, it's a situation that greater minds than mine have tried to find
solutions for, so, like, whatever!
Dave
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Conflict in the Middle East
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| (...) What exactly are these warriors promised from the afterlife? How is their belief about the ultimate sacrifice different than our own? Many Americans have made suicidal attacks "in the line of honor." How and why is it different? I think that (...) (22 years ago, 8-Apr-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: Conflict in the Middle East
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| (...) The fact that these attacks are suicide attacks is irrelevant. The issue is the deliberate and unjustifiable killing of civilians. (...) What do padres promise your country’s troops as they go into battle? Hell and damnation? I think not! (...) (22 years ago, 8-Apr-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Conflict in the Middle East
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| (...) Most people might agree. Why do they need a homeland? I'm leaning toward believing that the very notion of 'homeland' is a divisive instrument. Maybe we should seek to eliminate that idea globally. (...) I think that terror is a tool (...) (22 years ago, 4-Apr-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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