The one thing people haven't been talking much about, and one of the things I've made a point of mentioned earlier, is the fact that whoever did this - especially they were religiously motivated - somehow thought they were doing the right thing.
Take a moment to let the chill of that statement leave you.
This brings to my mind two thoughts.
First the fact that someone could, somehow, convince themselves that killing thousands of strangers who had done nothing wrong to them, just because of where they lived or what they did for a living or what God they worshipped, is even more disgusting than the act itself. These were not lunatics; they knew what they were doing, and did it thinking that they would go to heaven for doing it (this applies to just about all such suicide terrorists, not Islamic ones; and even those who ddied for, say, Communism or Fascism did so thinking they were saving the human race).
Pardon me, I had to stop typing for a moment, to let the shaking stop.
The other think it brings to mind is, what the hell evr happened to convince them this? Something, somehow, motivated them to do this, some slight real or imagined, some moral (!) dictate or ideological imperative convinced them that this was Right and Necesssary.
And if it could drive them do so once, it could continue to do so. It seems to me that we owe it to ourselves to find out what the hell they were thinking, and see what we can do about it.
('We' doesn't just mean 'the US', but humanity in general. Treating this as an isolated case will just let other forms of meme plagues take root, with the same results.)
This does not mean, justify their actions. Just the opposite - I want to see the causes of this sort of madness identified, isolated, and if possible, torn up by its roots. |
