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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bilow who wrote (157963)	2/10/2005 4:20:22 PM
From: michael97123	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

"My point here is that the ability to motivate humans to commit crimes (i.e. murder their family) and then commit suicide is hardly unique to the present situation." People giving up their life in defense of their beliefs by suicide rather than being slaughtered by an enemy or living in slavery after capture is the same as a terrorist strapping on a bomb and blowing up a disco? No the comparison works better with Ghandi and MLK taking the beatings they did for freedom and practicing civil disobedience. Masada was one way of doing that when death became a certainty. If the Jews of Masada snuck into the soldiers quarters and killed women and children by setting their living quarters ablaze while they slept, then you might have a comparison. Those South Vietnamese Buddhist monks are another example.

To: Bilow who wrote (157963)	2/10/2005 4:30:13 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Respond to of 281500

P.S. By the way, at Masada, did EVERYONE willingly kill themselves, or did a few of them have to be, like so many at Jonestown, well, ummmm, ah, "convinced"? Were the inhabitants of Jonestown facing death by crucifixion, with their women and children sold into slavery? If so, then you have good comparison. The inhabitants of Masada killed themselves rather than let the Romans do it. Suicidal attacks, straight out suicide, and worse, is not uncommon among people who feel that they are enslaved, or about to be enslaved A condition that does not apply to the Palestinians, for all their whining. Many of the suicide bombers came from comfortable middle class homes; none to my knowledge were actually destitute, enslaved or starving.