[Vision2020] Homicidal bombers

[Douglas]

Visionaries,

I am sure that part of this is an ethos problem. If I said it, it must be 
outlandish and subversive of the republic. Nobody in this quarter said 
anything about medals for bravery or heroism. I believe that men such as 
this are wicked, and those who did not die in their attack should be tried 
and executed. They are nutcases, pure and simple, or, to use the medieval 
phrase, cakes of fruite.

You are on a destroyer in the South Pacific. A kamikaze is headed straight 
for your ship. You shake your fist at the plane as it approaches. What 
epithet comes to mind?

"Adulterer!"
"Tax-evader!"
"Runs with scissors!"
"Sluggard!"

Such things are in fact moral failings, but they do not happen to be on 
exhibition at that moment. And neither is cowardice. We cannot say the 
action is cowardly because the victims in Saudia Arabia are defenseless and 
had no way of fighting back. The presence of weapons among those you attack 
makes the attackers' death a possibility. But on these missions, the 
victims don't need weapons to get us to that outcome. The attackers know 
they are going to die.

I do not praise this -- I hate it. But I think that we will continue to be 
ineffective in fighting it until we know what is going on. Calling such 
actions by our enemy "cowardly" is a good way to keep ourselves clueless.

Cordially,

Douglas


At 11:22 AM 5/14/2003 -0700, you wrote:

>Oh god.. *puke*... how do you produce this rubbish? I'm sure if your
>family was converted to spam by one of these attacks you would be the
>first in line to pin a medal of bravery on the perpetrator.  Being brave
>in their own minds and beliefs doesn't make them brave in mine.  So, next,
>you will tell us that insane murderers aren't really murderers because, in
>their own minds/beliefs, they were justified ?  Get real.
>
>Cowards.
>
>Tex
>tex@kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu
>
>On Wed, 14 May 2003, Douglas wrote:
>
> > Visionaries,
> >
> > Would someone please tell the State Department to stop denouncing
> > homicide/suicide bombers as cowardly? They are lots of wicked things, but
> > being cowards is not one of them.
> >
> > Cordially,
> >
> > Douglas
> >
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