*OT* evil
I should think that, say, an Afghan farmer, who has
witnessed the past twenty years of violence between
communists and American interests...who is devout in
his religion...who understands the meaning of Jihad--
he might have a different perspective on the whole
matter. His wife might have a different, perhaps
unspoken, opinion. And on and on.
I bring up an Afghan becuase I am assuming that
Bin Laden and the Taliban are at least partly
resonsible for the hijackings--although I suppose it
is still possible a radical American group, perhaps
one of these new environmental or bioterrorist
groups, might just as easily have accomplished the
attack.
<Tuesday's evil acts were too horrendous, too irrational
and defy any rational explanation by sane, caring human
beings who just want to make a better life for themselves and their families>
Just some quick thoughts and notes:
It is interesting, that my Afghan farmer is now prevented
from raising his cash crop by the Taliban!
Afghanistan’s cash crop wilts
Taliban ban on opium yields impressive results
msnbc.com
I seem to remember reading Saint Thomas Aquinas
and Erasmus...lets see what I can find:
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
St. Thomas teaches that there are certain specifiable sorts
of human actions that are morally wicked of themselves,
<secundum se,> and therefore unworthy of human choice and
contrary to precepts of the natural law. Among the sorts of
human acts wicked in this sense and opposed to natural law
precepts are theft, lying, fornicating, committing
adultery, killing the innocent
ewtn.com
I've had a few persistent thoughts over the past couple
days. For about an hour after the attack, I said to my
wife, things like "bomb them all back into the stong age"
Later I had the thought that probably more people are killed
by drunk drivers in this country each year than were killed
in the Trade Center (yes, that does appear to be true).
And I beleive that Islam forbids the consumption of
alcohol. I do not know what the laws are on tobacco
products, most certainly a discussion of the evils
of booze is silly beside the statistics of cancer deaths
from cigarettes...and for all I know all religions smoke,
except for the Mormons (?) See how fast you can go around
and around on this!
Anyway, I had a few more thoughts--
It is interesting to see Patriots driving around with
flags on the car antennas--often mounted on cars built
in Japan! (I'd like to brag that my cars are both American
built--my Wagon even has a Chicago Labor Union sticker
on it...but I have since found out that my Taurus SHO was
assembled in Canada...ha!)
Finally, it seems to me that the terrorists were not
cowards at all. I skimmed through a message board here
on SI where they would brand me Un-American for saying
all these things. I'd like to point out that I am merely
tring to think a little bit. There was a very good essay
at Slate.com on the subject of cowardice...so this was
not actually my own thought til I read it elsewhere.
I'd suggest that people in general very often have
not done enough thinking. That certainly goes for
terrorists! I do fervently wish to see that the
criminals are captured and put on trial. I personally
would be in favor of captial punishment for the people
who organized and trained the terrorists, and if the
judgement came that these people had to die for their
crimes, I do beleive that I could be their executioner.
And that would make me immoral I suppose.
That is all I have for now. The issue is complicated.
Probably the best you can do is simply catch the guys
who are still out there and lock them up. Do that, and
also secure aircraft cabins from the passengers, that
would very effective. |
