Quote:
Originally posted by jaguar
There was a letter in the herald sun here, the local paper for the average labor voter, tends to be very sensationalist that said 'just nuke the entire middle east, problem solved' If I could find that person I'd chain them to a chair and force them to watch videos of what ordinary people are going though there for about a week.
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Literally, that person may be correct. That MIGHT eliminate the problem that we are having this week (though I question even that). But we'd have other problems, not the least of which would be ourselves and what we would have become -- the same as them -- by indescriminately killing the innocent along with the guilty with no regard for human life.
There are two ways that I have often seen people react to acts of violence and misery -- even as "minor" as children who are bullied in school. The first is "fine, if people are going to do that to me, I am going to do it to other people" also known as the "get them before they get you" philosophy.
The second is the "that is so cruel and mean that I want to be sure that *I* never do that to someone else" also known as the "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" philosophy.
The latter allows us to rise above them and attain support and sympathy from the rest of the world who will, through less violent means, help us attempt to irradicate this method of "warfare" from the world.
The former allows the evil (not the specific acts of violence, but the thinking behind them) to propigate and win and we essentially become terrorists ourselves.
I just hope that we do not respond to terrorists by becoming terrorists.
<steps down off soapbox>