Tom wrote:
> <snip>
> In my opinion, no grievance could possibly justify what was done yesterday,
> and whoever did it must be punished with every imaginable severity. If it
> does turn out to have been terrorists from the Middle East, merely addressing
> the subject of their grievances will avail little; this was not perpetrated
> for the purpose of providing the Palestinians with a state of their own, and
> arranging for an independent Palestine won't end terrorism. The people who
> did this are so maddened by their sense of grievance that they simply want to
> strike out blindly and in rage, and destroy destroy destroy. Trying to
> appease them will only embolden them to further atrocities.
>
> On the other hand, if we learn nothing from this except "Get 'em," we will
> have squandered the lives that were lost. America has an unchallenged
> position of leadership, and its current leaders seem determined to be the big
> bully boys on the block,
> <snip>
> And that's not a criticism of the USA. I love my country and I grieve for
> yesterday's victims and their families and friends. I want my country to be
> even better than it is.
The rage that all Americans must be feeling is so hard to imagine from the other
side of the world, precisely because of the things Tom mentioned - these acts
aren't toward a goal like the IRA, PLO, or Basques (surely they have a TLA as
well?) but purely motivated by hatred.
But it may give Americans a better understanding of how this blind hatred of
America is fostered in places like the Middle East, where these people grew up
with bloodshed and destruction. Long before Israel's formation, long before US
intervention in the Middle East, they have been at war in one form or another,
back to biblical times - those of the Abraham, of Jesus and of Mohammed. These
people feel the same anger over lost ones, but without the benefit of a free
press, without internet mailing lists, without freedom of travel, and without
enlightened education. They grow up believing whatever the local despot leader
wants them to believe, actually *knowing* these myths about the USA as absolute
facts, and secure in the knowledge that only by destroying the evil Americans can
they attain true happiness in the afterlife with however many virgins were
promised to them by their mullah.
But Americans aren't like that... They stand for so much more than the holy war,
the blood feud that can never be satisfied. I actually hope to see CNN footage of
a cruise missile taking out a training camp or some terrorist headquarters, I
hope America captures or removes the perpetrators as rapidly and decisively as
possible, but what I see as the most significant factor in the pursuit is the
international co-operation that will ensue.
This attack was so unjustified, so cowardly and so terrible in its execution
against civilians that no world leader can stand before other world leaders and
protect the culprits, so long as America retains the moral high ground it holds
at the moment.
The leadership in America, from the precinct police captain and station fire
chief, to the mayor and governor, right up to the president have shown great
clarity of purpose and strength in these times, and if all America turns it anger
toward resolution and determination to not let the bastards win, rather than a
blind hatred, then America WILL win.
That's the benefit of freedom of the press, liberty and justice for all, and all
the other foundations America is built on.
May your God bless and comfort you all.
Russell Chapman
