Thoughts on how to really defeat terrorism- an essay from the heart

[Kashyapa]

I'll arrive at my point in a roundabout sort of way.

When I was 11 my dad got me a really kick-ass pellet gun. Black, evil, shiny. Could absolutely obliterate a plastic army man. Accurate as hell, too. I could place ten pellets in the center of a target at thirty paces. I had a lot of fun with it. It made me feel powerful, like a badass. One day, I was playing with it. My parents were gone, my mom at work, my dad doing something else. I lived in the forest, in a quiet little town right in the foothills of the front range in Colorado, and there were a lot of squirrels around. On a black, evil little impulse, I turned my weapon on one of them, took aim, and fired. I blew it straight off the branch it was sitting on, flipping end over end, until it hit the ground. I felt like the s--t. Great white hunter drops his kill. Boo ya!
So I walked over to inspect my handiwork, swaggering in the way only a little boy can. I knelt down and looked at the squirrel. My pellet had taken it in the haunches, and exited the flank. Blood was pouring out of the ragged wound. The squirrel was still moving, squirming in agony, its bright little black eyes still open, still conscious, still feeling the godawful pain it must have been feeling, staring up at this gigantic curious thing above it in shock and fear and holy s--t what the hell happened to me I'm dying!!!! And I watched it die like that, terrified and alone, its killer kneeling over it. And I became the squirrel, imagined the pain so vividly my own stomach knotted and flared, imagined its uncomprehending last seconds. I spent the next hour sobbing uncontrollably, saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" over and over again. Because it felt the same amount of pain I would have if I had been walking down the street, minding my own business and attending to my own life, and suddenly a chunk of metal the size of a pop can had zipped through the air at 200 mph and hit me in the ass. It felt the same incomprehension, the same panic, the same terror. I realized that the squirrel was no different than I, that I was an animal just like it.

Just yesterday, I was aimlessly websurfing and came across a site called "Information Clearinghouse", a sort of anti-establishment news service. I scrolled down. A picture flashed into view. A little boy's face, eleven or twelve, contorted in misery. Olive skin, dark hair. Further. Shoulders. Two shapeless potatoes of white gauze sprouting from them, the amputated stumps of his arms. More. Blackened flesh, scorched like a well-done burger, smeared with white burn cream. A little Iraqi boy named Ali, twelve years old, good at geography although he'd never left his hometown, a big family with a lot of sisters and one brother who all love him very much. A missile had hit his house, and his life changed. All he could talk about to the reporter who came to visit him was that he wanted to go home. He was worried about his arms, not being able to eat and play and enjoy a normal life. You could see the hurt and incomprehension and misery in his face, plain as day, just like that little squirrel I wasted half a lifetime ago. I cried, bitter tears burning my eyes and my throat aching. "I'm sorry, little buddy," I said to him, to myself. Ali deserved what he got just like the squirrel did- that is to say, not at all. His life will be forever changed, if he doesn't die from septicemia in a totally unprepared hospital, suffering from injuries that a high-tech US burn ward would have trouble treating effectively.

I don't think that anything meaningful, anything material separates me from Ali or the squirrel. Just beings, capable of feeling joy and pain and everything else, going about their lives, trying to survive and be happy and at peace. Life is life is life. No separation, no dominion, no separate rights. We feel the same pain, we dream the same dreams. Ali loves his mother just like I love mine. I'd be just as miserable as Ali is if I had been burned and my arms blown off. The squirrel might not have the mental capacity to love in the same way that a human might, but I'm sure the basic essence is there. It feels the same pain I do. Culture, nation, race, species, morality- all meaningless distinctions that seek to emphasize nonexistent divisions. We are all LIFE! We all seek to survive as best we can. We all seek to live and have babies and be happy. Sometimes our culture or our life circumstances lead us into delusion, and our priorities get messed up, and we do awful things. That seed of evil and destruction can be planted in any heart. Evil is in the act. I believe that we all possess the same potential for good and evil, and that when evil is done it is done not out of inherent evil but misdirection and delusion.

The squirrel died because of an arrogant little boy. So might Ali, for the same reason, if one doens't essentially consider him dead already. Just one of thousands of wounded, over a thousand dead, in yet another war that's going to do nothing to achieve a lasting peace. Just another cause, and just another effect, of those meaningless distinctions, and the needless turmoil and hatred. When we go to war, we forget that we're all humans, capable of the same pain, the same bliss, the same joy, the same hatred. Our genes are all the same, just with different ones flipped on and off. We share the same physiology and psychology, yearn for the same things. We all just want to live in peace and be happy and have children and love. When we do things that cause pain, cause suffering, cause death and destruction and maimed little boys, we destroy our ability to be at peace and love and have babies. Death and destruction, even for the purest of motives, beget only more death and destruction. As the saying goes, bombing for peace is like f--king for virginity. War will not create peace in the long run. War will just create more war, as hearts are misdirected by fury and hurt and seek to lash out at those who have hurt them. We cannot bomb the world into being peaceful, and you're living in a dreamworld if you think that's possible. Introducing peace into the world is the only way peace will become a part of the world.

We defend our country, passing draconian laws and fortifying points of entry, lashing out at those who oppose us, hating and fearing and hurting. We oppose force with force, take an eye for an eye, revenge our dead by creating more. Instead of perpetuating the endless cycle, why not try combating hate with love, war with peace? Why do the terrorists hate us? Because for the last hundred years, we've been at nearly endless war, trying to impose what we think is right on the world, sowing the seeds of hate and pain all around us. Don't delude yourself by saying that they "hate that we have a free society". They hate us because of our heavy handedness, our willingness to f--k with other nation's affairs, to create little Alis in the name of our values, to bomb cities and wedding parties. They hate us because we presume that our way is best and that everyone should be like us, because our companies care only for the profit motive, because we have such blatantly deceptive motives for our misbegotten wars.

The only way out is peace. If the entire war budget had been devoted to building universities, schools, infrastructure, and perpetuating love, the world would be a better place. The war hasn't changed anything but a regime. Why not change the minds and hearts of millions? Why not fund AIDS treatment for all the infected poor of Africa? Why not send our nation's youth out to do service work in less fortunate parts of the world? Why not promote good sanitation and medical care? You get out of the world what you put into it. Why not put some peace and goodwill and happiness out into the world for a change? We could take away the reasons that the terrorists hate us. Instead of killing little boys, let's endow scholarships to send them to college and build the third world's educated workforce. Let's promote an open and tolerant and free society. Instead of bulding America into a fortress, let's open it up, and open up our hearts. Because all we are is beings, trying to find a way to survive and prosper. And we all deserve the same chance to do that.

Whew.

 

[Tony]

I was in a simular situation when I was 11, I shot a squirrel with my pellet gun. It was wounded and kicking around on the ground. Feeling bad that I was causing it pain, I reloaded and shot him in the head. I ended his pain, after that I felt really bad that I killed a defenseless squirrel, I vowed never to shoot another squirrel, and I never have.


That being said.

This essay was nice, and it would be true if we lived in a Disney movie, but peace and education will not rid the world of men like saddam hussien.

 

[Kashyapa]

YES IT WILL! If it had been practiced in the past, men like Saddam would have never arisen. If we start practicing it now, men like Saddam will never come into being again. Peace will beget peace. Good intentions will beget good intentions.

 

[Tony]

YES IT WILL! If it had been practiced in the past, men like Saddam would have never arisen.

How do you know?

Peace will beget peace. Good intentions will beget good intentions.

No it wont. People like me will take advantage of the "peace" and "good intentions". What will you do then?

 

[jj]

I'm sorry to say that some people don't have that empathetic reaction, and rather rejoice in the pain and agony that they cause. Don't ask me to explain it, because I don't understand that kind of person at all.

There is often very little in the way of reason to be had with such people, who sometimes, unfortunately, have to be physically stopped.

I don't have a perfect solution, it's why I'm pro-military, although anti-action in MOST cases.

It's that strong military that keeps the people who only understand force, power, and might in line.

And as much as we all might wish, there are enough of those in the world.

 

[Richard G]

YES IT WILL! If it had been practiced in the past, men like Saddam would have never arisen. If we start practicing it now, men like Saddam will never come into being again. Peace will beget peace. Good intentions will beget good intentions.

There are prisons full of murderes, rapist, and child molesters. There are also thousands of murders, rapists, and child molesters on the streets all over the world. No amount of good intentions, pretty flowery pictures, kumbai-ya sing alongs, or group hugs will cure these people.

Your living in la-la land my friend.

 

[EvilYeti]

YES IT WILL! If it had been practiced in the past, men like Saddam would have never arisen. If we start practicing it now, men like Saddam will never come into being again. Peace will beget peace. Good intentions will beget good intentions.

Your idea would only work if everyone practiced it, which sadly will never be the case.

There will always be tyrants and there will always be the need to resist them by whatever meants necessary. If we practice "Peace as policy, whatever the cost" now, men like Saddam will eventually rule the earth, as none will oppose them.

Non-violent resistance only works when your enemy has a concience.

 

[Kashyapa]

Gandhi secured independence in India with nonviolence. Martin Luther King helped end overt racism in our country. Instead of just giving up and whoring ourselves out to the orgy of hate and killing that's overtaking the world, we should at least try. At least some difference could be made. And it would certainly be better than more slaughtered children, wouldn't you say.

 

[Nephilimn]

Re: um?

I'll arrive at my point in a roundabout sort of way.
Why do the terrorists hate us? Because for the last hundred years, we've been at nearly endless war, trying to impose what we think is right on the world...
Whew.

I don't understand.

We didn't want to get involved in WWI. Only after Germany declared war on our merchant ships and promised Mexico they would "reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona" - in their proposal for alliance - did we finally enter the 'Europeon's Conflict'.

After the war, the American people and government were perfectly happy going back to our isolationism, which we enjoyed during most of the 19th century, until Japan - who was waging endless war and imposing what they thought was right on the world (or at least their major section of it) by slaughtering and raping millions of innocent civilians, including children - decided to attack the US. This allied us with Great Britain, who was fighting against Germany - who was waging war and imposing what they thought was right on the world (or at least Europe and Western Asia and Northern Africa) by slaughtering and raping millions of innocent civilians, including children.

Now we have been forced onto the world stage. Inevitable.... yes.

After WWII, we were now faced with the USSR, an 'ally' - in the loosest form of the word - from the war, who was waging war and imposing what they thought was right on the world (or at least the 'new' eastern Europe and Asia) by slaughtering and raping millions of innocent civilians, including children.

The Koreon war was 'sanctioned' by the UN, the new League of Nations, and we all know how that ended - or didn't...

Vietnam was a fight to slow communism and the growing tyranny occuring in other southeast asian countries. When we left, Pol Pot was now able to slaughter and rape millions of innocent civilians while imposing what he thought was right on the world, (or at least his little part of it), without fear of retribution from the neighboring 'big bad Americans'.

We bomb Libya after they blow up a commercial airline and train terrorists.

Gulf War I was 'sanctioned' by the UN, and we all know how that one ended - or didn't end.

We bomb Yugoslavia where Milosevic was slaughtering millions while imposing what he thought was right on the world...

We rid the Taliban from Afghanistan only after our civilian structures are attacked and civilians purposely targeted by radical 'muslims' who are raging war - against the civilized world - to impose what they think is right.

We rid the world of yet another dictator, who has slaughtered and raped and tortured millions of his own people while doing what he thinks is right.

What of the rest of the world, in only the last 100 years, who have raged "endless war, trying to impose what they think is right..." If that is the reason, wouldn't terrorist's hate even themselves?

Endless wars have raged since the dawing of man, it will end when the last two humans alive fight it out to the death and only one remains.

A small fraction of innocents get hurt by 'big bad American bombs'; but what of the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians that would be: tortured, beaten, raped, mutilated, killed if that dicatator and his psychotic imbeciles were still in charge? Why not mention them? - Or is it that easy not to think of them as long as they are a world away, it doens't affect your favorite TV show being pre-emted for war coverage, and it's not you?

 

[DrBenway]

Some people are born bad. I know little kids who can't be left alone with animals, else they'll torture them. These children have something wrong with their brains. Not their fault.

You're blessed to have that part of your brain working which causes you to suffer when you see the suffering of others.

 

[DavidJames]

"when I was 11, I shot a squirrel with my pellet gun...I reloaded and shot him in the head"

"little kids who can't be left alone with animals, else they'll torture them. These children have something wrong with their brains. Not their fault. "

Sometimes additional words aren't necessary.

 

[Troll]

I'll arrive at my point in a roundabout sort of way.

When I was 11 my dad got me a really kick-ass pellet gun. Black, evil, shiny. Could absolutely obliterate a plastic army man. Accurate as hell, too. I could place ten pellets in the center of a target at thirty paces. I had a lot of fun with it. It made me feel powerful, like a badass. One day, I was playing with it. My parents were gone, my mom at work, my dad doing something else. I lived in the forest, in a quiet little town right in the foothills of the front range in Colorado, and there were a lot of squirrels around. On a black, evil little impulse, I turned my weapon on one of them, took aim, and fired. I blew it straight off the branch it was sitting on, flipping end over end, until it hit the ground. I felt like the s--t. Great white hunter drops his kill. Boo ya!
So I walked over to inspect my handiwork, swaggering in the way only a little boy can. I knelt down and looked at the squirrel. My pellet had taken it in the haunches, and exited the flank. Blood was pouring out of the ragged wound. The squirrel was still moving, squirming in agony, its bright little black eyes still open, still conscious, still feeling the godawful pain it must have been feeling, staring up at this gigantic curious thing above it in shock and fear and holy s--t what the hell happened to me I'm dying!!!! And I watched it die like that, terrified and alone, its killer kneeling over it. And I became the squirrel, imagined the pain so vividly my own stomach knotted and flared, imagined its uncomprehending last seconds. I spent the next hour sobbing uncontrollably, saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" over and over again. Because it felt the same amount of pain I would have if I had been walking down the street, minding my own business and attending to my own life, and suddenly a chunk of metal the size of a pop can had zipped through the air at 200 mph and hit me in the ass. It felt the same incomprehension, the same panic, the same terror. I realized that the squirrel was no different than I, that I was an animal just like it.

Just yesterday, I was aimlessly websurfing and came across a site called "Information Clearinghouse", a sort of anti-establishment news service. I scrolled down. A picture flashed into view. A little boy's face, eleven or twelve, contorted in misery. Olive skin, dark hair. Further. Shoulders. Two shapeless potatoes of white gauze sprouting from them, the amputated stumps of his arms. More. Blackened flesh, scorched like a well-done burger, smeared with white burn cream. A little Iraqi boy named Ali, twelve years old, good at geography although he'd never left his hometown, a big family with a lot of sisters and one brother who all love him very much. A missile had hit his house, and his life changed. All he could talk about to the reporter who came to visit him was that he wanted to go home. He was worried about his arms, not being able to eat and play and enjoy a normal life. You could see the hurt and incomprehension and misery in his face, plain as day, just like that little squirrel I wasted half a lifetime ago. I cried, bitter tears burning my eyes and my throat aching. "I'm sorry, little buddy," I said to him, to myself. Ali deserved what he got just like the squirrel did- that is to say, not at all. His life will be forever changed, if he doesn't die from septicemia in a totally unprepared hospital, suffering from injuries that a high-tech US burn ward would have trouble treating effectively.

I don't think that anything meaningful, anything material separates me from Ali or the squirrel. Just beings, capable of feeling joy and pain and everything else, going about their lives, trying to survive and be happy and at peace. Life is life is life. No separation, no dominion, no separate rights. We feel the same pain, we dream the same dreams. Ali loves his mother just like I love mine. I'd be just as miserable as Ali is if I had been burned and my arms blown off. The squirrel might not have the mental capacity to love in the same way that a human might, but I'm sure the basic essence is there. It feels the same pain I do. Culture, nation, race, species, morality- all meaningless distinctions that seek to emphasize nonexistent divisions. We are all LIFE! We all seek to survive as best we can. We all seek to live and have babies and be happy. Sometimes our culture or our life circumstances lead us into delusion, and our priorities get messed up, and we do awful things. That seed of evil and destruction can be planted in any heart. Evil is in the act. I believe that we all possess the same potential for good and evil, and that when evil is done it is done not out of inherent evil but misdirection and delusion.

The squirrel died because of an arrogant little boy. So might Ali, for the same reason, if one doens't essentially consider him dead already. Just one of thousands of wounded, over a thousand dead, in yet another war that's going to do nothing to achieve a lasting peace. Just another cause, and just another effect, of those meaningless distinctions, and the needless turmoil and hatred. When we go to war, we forget that we're all humans, capable of the same pain, the same bliss, the same joy, the same hatred. Our genes are all the same, just with different ones flipped on and off. We share the same physiology and psychology, yearn for the same things. We all just want to live in peace and be happy and have children and love. When we do things that cause pain, cause suffering, cause death and destruction and maimed little boys, we destroy our ability to be at peace and love and have babies. Death and destruction, even for the purest of motives, beget only more death and destruction. As the saying goes, bombing for peace is like f--king for virginity. War will not create peace in the long run. War will just create more war, as hearts are misdirected by fury and hurt and seek to lash out at those who have hurt them. We cannot bomb the world into being peaceful, and you're living in a dreamworld if you think that's possible. Introducing peace into the world is the only way peace will become a part of the world.

We defend our country, passing draconian laws and fortifying points of entry, lashing out at those who oppose us, hating and fearing and hurting. We oppose force with force, take an eye for an eye, revenge our dead by creating more. Instead of perpetuating the endless cycle, why not try combating hate with love, war with peace? Why do the terrorists hate us? Because for the last hundred years, we've been at nearly endless war, trying to impose what we think is right on the world, sowing the seeds of hate and pain all around us. Don't delude yourself by saying that they "hate that we have a free society". They hate us because of our heavy handedness, our willingness to f--k with other nation's affairs, to create little Alis in the name of our values, to bomb cities and wedding parties. They hate us because we presume that our way is best and that everyone should be like us, because our companies care only for the profit motive, because we have such blatantly deceptive motives for our misbegotten wars.

The only way out is peace. If the entire war budget had been devoted to building universities, schools, infrastructure, and perpetuating love, the world would be a better place. The war hasn't changed anything but a regime. Why not change the minds and hearts of millions? Why not fund AIDS treatment for all the infected poor of Africa? Why not send our nation's youth out to do service work in less fortunate parts of the world? Why not promote good sanitation and medical care? You get out of the world what you put into it. Why not put some peace and goodwill and happiness out into the world for a change? We could take away the reasons that the terrorists hate us. Instead of killing little boys, let's endow scholarships to send them to college and build the third world's educated workforce. Let's promote an open and tolerant and free society. Instead of bulding America into a fortress, let's open it up, and open up our hearts. Because all we are is beings, trying to find a way to survive and prosper. And we all deserve the same chance to do that.

Whew.

Evil pellet gun? It was possessed by Satan? Bias shows early in the words of fools. If you killed and did not do so to defend or feed, then you have no excuse for blaming anyone but you for the senseless death of a living creature. Why did you aim and shoot at the squirrel if it did not attack yopu or you did not intend to feed your family with it? Are you insane? Killing for the fun of it then feeling bad? If you don't freaking feel bad looking at the person in your sights before you pull the trigger then you're a trigger happy fool that only felt regret because it wasn't "as cool as you thought it would be"

 

[Tony]

"when I was 11, I shot a squirrel with my pellet gun...I reloaded and shot him in the head"

"little kids who can't be left alone with animals, else they'll torture them. These children have something wrong with their brains. Not their fault. "

Sometimes additional words aren't necessary.

Where's the context?

 

[Kashyapa]

Re: Re: Thoughts on how to really defeat terrorism- an essay from the heart

Evil pellet gun? It was possessed by Satan? Bias shows early in the words of fools. If you killed and did not do so to defend or feed, then you have no excuse for blaming anyone but you for the senseless death of a living creature. Why did you aim and shoot at the squirrel if it did not attack yopu or you did not intend to feed your family with it? Are you insane? Killing for the fun of it then feeling bad? If you don't freaking feel bad looking at the person in your sights before you pull the trigger then you're a trigger happy fool that only felt regret because it wasn't "as cool as you thought it would be"

Perhaps you missed the part where I mentioned crying over its dead body? The remorse that I felt and the change in perspective it brought? Did you read it it all, or did you just sort of skim the first couple lines. And are any 11 year olds not fools?

Tony- I think the point is that war and divisiveness don't work. In a totally nonemotional, pragmatic way, it's undeniable that war doesn't accomplish what we want it to. Therefore, another approach might achieve the ends we want to. And I don't just refer to American bombs- I refer to the whole system of war. Americans, Afghanis, Iraqis, everyone. We need to reject imposition of our agendas on the world. Compassion should be the only agenda, because it's the only alternative that has proven effective.

And no, this will never happen. It's a pie in the sky. But if we just shrug and say, oh well, nothing to be done, we're truly f--ked. I posted this just as a voice of dissent, a call for a better way. If we refuse to even strive for a better world, advancement will stop. And I truly believe that none of those conflicts mentioned in one of the posts would have been necessary if the doctrine of compassion- in essence, following the Constitution and the teachings of our founding fathers faithfully and to the letter- had been followed right from the start. We've lost the way our founders laid out for us, and the world has suffered as a result.

 

[NoZed Avenger]

Gandhi secured independence in India with nonviolence. Martin Luther King helped end overt racism in our country. Instead of just giving up and whoring ourselves out to the orgy of hate and killing that's overtaking the world, we should at least try. At least some difference could be made. And it would certainly be better than more slaughtered children, wouldn't you say.

Gandhi secured independence because he was dealing with Great Britain -- a country of basically decent people who had a democratic style government and who could be reached with appeals for fairness.

Had Gahndi been up against Pol Pot, or Stalin, or Hitler, or even Hussein -- someone without a conscience, without remorse -- it would never have worked.

NA

 

[BobK]

Re: Re: Re: Thoughts on how to really defeat terrorism- an essay from the heart

Perhaps you missed the part where I mentioned crying over its dead body? The remorse that I felt and the change in perspective it brought? Did you read it it all, or did you just sort of skim the first couple lines. And are any 11 year olds not fools?

Tony- I think the point is that war and divisiveness don't work. In a totally nonemotional, pragmatic way, it's undeniable that war doesn't accomplish what we want it to. Therefore, another approach might achieve the ends we want to. And I don't just refer to American bombs- I refer to the whole system of war. Americans, Afghanis, Iraqis, everyone. We need to reject imposition of our agendas on the world. Compassion should be the only agenda, because it's the only alternative that has proven effective.

And no, this will never happen. It's a pie in the sky. But if we just shrug and say, oh well, nothing to be done, we're truly f--ked. I posted this just as a voice of dissent, a call for a better way. If we refuse to even strive for a better world, advancement will stop. And I truly believe that none of those conflicts mentioned in one of the posts would have been necessary if the doctrine of compassion- in essence, following the Constitution and the teachings of our founding fathers faithfully and to the letter- had been followed right from the start. We've lost the way our founders laid out for us, and the world has suffered as a result.

Wishing it so doesn't make it possible.

Well written, but it's rather impractical to expect the most predatory species on the planet to suddenly ignore all agressive
instincts and become totally compassionate.

It seems to me that our founding fathers knew very well that war is sometimes a necessity. Otherwise they wouldn't have made provisions for war in the constitution.

Concerning your traumatic experience I have a couple questions.

DId your father really give you the pellet gun before impressing on you the idea of having consideration for life?

What happened to the gun? i.e. sold, given away, countinued use, destroyed, passed on to children

Could you maybe give us a ballpark current age so we have a better idea whether these are longheld beliefs or only for a few years?

 

[Vorticity]

People like me will take advantage of the "peace" and "good intentions".

Just out of curiosity, what kind of people are those? Can you be more specific?

 

[DrBenway]

Re: Re: Re: Thoughts on how to really defeat terrorism- an essay from the heart

I truly believe that none of those conflicts mentioned in one of the posts would have been necessary if the doctrine of compassion- in essence, following the Constitution and the teachings of our founding fathers faithfully and to the letter- had been followed right from the start.

If an intruder were going into the bedroom of your sleeping two year old son, would you respond with "compassion" for the intruder? Is there any circumstance where deadly force is justified?

 

[Lemastre]

People are no damn good -- at least part of the time!

Ever since Eve bit that damned apple, we've been going downhill. Even people who know better figure out ways to rationalize abusing and subjugating others. And then there are those who don't know better and don't want to.

 

[Skeptic]

We oppose force with force, take an eye for an eye, revenge our dead by creating more. Instead of perpetuating the endless cycle, why not try combating hate with love, war with peace?

Because it's know as "appeasement" and it never worked. The sole result of "loving" and "understanding the motives" of terrorists is more terrorism.

Remember Hitler? Only when he was opposed by "an eye for an eye, revenging the dead by creating more", was he stopped. As long as Chamberline&co. tried "understanding" him, he just got stronger and of course created ever more mischief.

Why do the terrorists hate us? Because for the last hundred years, we've been at nearly endless war, trying to impose what we think is right on the world,

Indeed. What right did the US have to tell Hitler that killing millions of people isn't right, or to the USSR that trying to take over western europe and enslave it as well is bad.

Who says that a world-wide rule of radical Islam, setting it all back to the 7th century, is "bad"? What is "bad" anyway? Who knows? Who decides? This is SO philosophical...

The truth is, this attitude is--in a word--racist. It is of course horrible and evil for Hitler or Stalin to butcher and enslave, and it was fine for the US to stop them--since the victims were Europeans. But when it is Saddam or Ho Chi Min that murder and enslave, it's suddenly just "part of their culture" that the US has "no right" to stop, because it's just "imposing what the US considers right" on the world.

Why? Because, you know, Bin Laden & co. are just opressing foreigners, people with dark skins and fuuny clothes, that don't speak anything LIKE English. Who knows if these weird people don't ENJOY being ruled by dictatorial madmen? Perhaps they like it? The madmen in charge keep telling us that they are ruling by their people's will, so it has to be true!

sowing the seeds of hate and pain all around us. Don't delude yourself by saying that they "hate that we have a free society".

It's not a delusion.

There is nothing more dangerous for dictatorships than the free exchange of ideas and criticism. This is why the USSR, for example, used to improsion and kill, not only those who forcefully opposed it, but poets and writers as well. The fact that, in the US, people can actually criticize the religion or beliefs, or the actions, of those in charge without being shot dead is something Bin Laden and his friends fear far more than they fear the US military force.

It was often the case that a dictatorial regime was bombed or had its citizens killed by an opposing force and survived to tell the tale (the Iraq-Iran war, or for that matter, most "third world" wars, such as those in Africa, are between two dictatorships.) But not ONE dictatorial regime EVER survived giving its people the freedom to vote and speak their mind more than a couple of weeks. Once you get that, it's OVER.

THIS--the freedom America represents--is what they hate the most, not because of philosophical differences, but because it is the democracies' secret weapon, the trump card that will destroy the Bin Ladens of the world, like it destroyed Stalin's USSR, if the people they opress ever get a whiff of it. They have good reason to fear American freedom more than American bombs!

They hate us because of our heavy handedness, our willingness to f--k with other nation's affairs, to create little Alis in the name of our values, to bomb cities and wedding parties.

Funny, though, how the Afghanis--despite having a wedding party bombed by mistake by American troops--still welcomed the Americans as Liberators in Kabul and were quite glad that the Taliban are out. Perhaps it had someting to do with the fact that, as sad as the bombing of the wedding party was, it was accidental, unlike the Taliban's killing of anybody, in a wedding party or not, who dares not to agree with them.

They hate us because we presume that our way is best and that everyone should be like us

Yes, a free country where criticizing the government is possible without getting your hand cut off or worse. Disgusting, this awful cultural imperialism.

Of course, nobody ever complains that the US decided in WWII that the Germans and French DO need to "be like the United States" and be released from Hitler's opression. It's just when the US tries to help non-Europeans that the left protests: for all we know, these little brown and yellow-skinned people actually LIKE living in opression and fear, as their government's official propaganda repeatedly says.

Remind me to use the same principle if I ever witness, say, a husband trying to kill his wife. If he is white, I will call the cops. But if he is (say) Indian or Morrocan, I'll just move on; after all, who am I to impose MY western values on HIS traditional ones? Who says it's BETTER not to kill your wife than to do so? I don't want to be accused of "cultural imperialism" here, you see...

The only way out is peace. If the entire war budget had been devoted to building universities, schools, infrastructure, and perpetuating love, the world would be a better place.

...until some Bin Laden or Hitler who DID spend his money on weapons smacks his lips and decides to take over the now-defensless country. (Jesus Christ, how naive can you GET?)

The war hasn't changed anything but a regime. Why not change the minds and hearts of millions?

Changing the Regime DID change the hearts and minds of millions. It freed the Iraqis of living in daily terror and squalor, and their relief is quite visible as they kiss US troops. Building schools and hospitals for the Iraqis without changing the regime would have done nothing, since Saddam would simply have stolen it and used it to buy tanks and pay his secret police, as he did with most of the aid he got from the "oil-for-food" program.

Why not fund AIDS treatment for all the infected poor of Africa?Why not send our nation's youth out to do service work in less fortunate parts of the world?

The US IS doing that. Of course, not being a socialist country, it cannot FORCE anybody to go, which is why the peace corps don't include many people.

But a much, MUCH more important reason why not too many people are doing that, is that these areas are usually ruled by despotic regimes, which means that every aid given to the counry--any help against AIDS, for sanitation, etc., and all these other noble ideas--is simply stolen by the ruling regimes and used to buy them luxury mansions and pay for their military's weapons as their people starve.

You REALLY want to help Africa? Start by changing "only the regime" in about twenty countries. Send in the Marines, hang the local dictator from the nearest lamppost, to make sure nobody steals the food. THEN you could start talking about helping the poor, since then there is a chance the help will actually reach them.

Let's promote an open and tolerant and free society.

But you don't want to do THAT. That's cultural imperialism,
remember? Besides, promoting tolerant and free societies usually involves getting rid of the local despot first, which usually requires force, which of course is a no-no.