Sincerity is over-rated as a virtue. The suicide bombers are nothing if not sincere. I think dismissing their motives as brain-washing seriously underrates the strength of the ideology that motivates them.
I don't know about that.
I find it hard to believe that a child would freely choose life over death. We've discussed this before, how Saddam would fund the families, how the parents would be glorified, the kids' memory made a subject of adulation, etc., in short a top-to-bottom culturally validated effort to get the kids to go along with murder and suicide. High level marketing, if you will. If sincerity is involved, it is a manipulated sort of sincerity, one I can't accept as genuine. I think we agree on this point because we've discussed it before.
Bad stuff.
RC's case is completely different. Her sincerity was not manipulated in the way that the children suicide bombers' is. Plus, to repeat, her death was probably an accident, not a suicide.
Anyway, an exhausted subject, I'm letting it go. |
