Hamaside

[Nic Name]

U.S. Government coins new phrase for "suicide" bombing -- homicide bombing.

[Hubris Boy]

Yeah... that caught my attention, too. I heard the term used on the radio earlier today. Seems a bit redundant, doesn't it?

Maybe the Dwellars can come up with a new term. Suggestions, anyone?

[jaguar]

desperation?

[elSicomoro]

mental illness

[tw]

Originally posted by Nic Name
U.S. Government coins new phrase for "suicide" bombing -- homicide bombing

Obviously text from the "Office of Strategic Wording Manipulation". At least the Soviets were simpler about Political Correctness. Soviets called their news "Pravda" which is "Truth" in Russian.

They are suicide bombers because they have decided, with good reason, that they have nothing left to live for.

[Xugumad]

Originally posted by sycamore
mental illness

That sort of trivialization is downright dangerous. Classifying that what we cannot culturally and socially understand or fear as 'ill' is an oversimplification in the extreme.

If someone is desperate, angry, and sufficiently afraid, they will do anything, including taking their own life. Read about kamikaze pilots, or how suicide bombers are often systematically indoctrinated. Were all kamikaze pilots mentally ill? Are all suicide bombers?

Never classify something that you find abhorrent as 'ill'. The Nazis weren't mentally diseased either, yet a lot of them were able to take part in despicable acts.

I recommend the German-Jewish author Hannah Arendt, especially her writings about the 'Banality of Evil'. A link to some of her work is <a href="http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/arendthtml/essayc1.html">here</a>.

X.

[elSicomoro]

That was beautiful, X, and it might have been applicable if I actually believed it to be about mental illness.

[Nic Name]

It is telling that the Bush administration is at pains to describe these bombings as "homicide bombings" rather than "suicide bombings" to focus on the victims of these "attacks" as they are called by al Jazeera, rather than on the "martyrs" as they are called by the Palestinians.

If the "bombings" were happening in the U.S.A. they would be called "terrorist bombings" and the administration would NOT be negotiating with the terrorists to achieve peace, even if the leader of the dissidents was elected.

I was trying to imagine what the American response would be to pro-Cuban anti-Amercan dissidents "homicide bombing" in Florida to achieve a political objective like getting the U.S. out of Gitmo.

And if Castro wouldn't condemn those bombings by loose factions of Cuban civilians ... though not of any Cuban military army.

I think the Americans would "liberate" the Cuban people by dismantling Castro's terrorist regime, and establish a freedom loving western democracy for the Cuban people, who could then have their own MLB franchise and win the World Series.

You're right. We would probably pound their asses into oblivion.

Interestingly enough, I don't think that we'd be getting bombed by people that we continually oppressed and humiliated, nor would we be getting bombed by the descendants of a people we displaced 54 years ago. Also, I find it hard to believe that we would be looking to create a jewish-only state with the hopes of having all the world's jews living within our borders in 15 or 20 years, thereby displacing even more innocent families.

[Nic Name]

OK, imagine Mexicans "homicide bombing" in Texas to get the USA to back off it's occupation.

Again, America would liberate the hell out of Mexico.

[Undertoad]

Also, I find it hard to believe that we would be looking to create a jewish-only state...

What about Florida?

Originally posted by Nic Name
OK, imagine Mexicans "homicide bombing" in Texas to get the USA to back off it's occupation.

Again, America would liberate the hell out of Mexico.

We won Texas 54 years ago?

[Nic Name]

154 years ago. Mexican-American War (1846-1848)

I think you're missing the point. I know exactly when we got Texas and how it happened.

54 years is recent history. 1948 isn't all that long ago. There are people alive that were displaced. They pose for pictures all the time. It's very dramatic. I even have a violin that I play for them.

154 is a different story. It's been quite a while since the Texas issue was decided. Besides, we let Mexicans come live in Texas all the time. Everything's copacetic. We're not oppressing them. We don't make them go through humiliating searches every day when they want to go to work.

You had a better chance with the Native Americans.

[Nic Name]

I think you're missing the point.

Why do people who fail to make their point, invariably blame others for missing the point?

Why not say, "Obviously, I failed to make my point clearly."

Everything's copacetic.

but perhaps not totally satisfactory to everyone on both sides of the border.

http://www.utep.edu/border/

But Cuba and Mexico were only examples of culturally distinct societies that one could use as examples closer to home for Americans to understand the necessary response to such terrorism.

The point that I obviously failed to make clearly, was simply that the American response to "homicide bombings" by, say Cubans or Mexicans, would very likely result in a non-negotiable, military effort to dismantle the terrorist organizations and any regimes in those countries that harbor those terrorist or sympathize with their political objectives. The issue would not be whether the Cubans or the Mexican dissidents had a point, or valid grievance, or not.

And that seems to be the point that Israel is trying to make to the USA, today.