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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill who wrote (1935)	7/20/2005 11:39:54 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 540985

To commit suicide in a cause requires a certain amount of bravery, imo- brave meaning you can operate in the face of danger or fear. If people on our "side" go on suicide missions, we call them "brave". That's all I can go on, and I'm not likely to change my mind about that. The targeting of innocents has nothing to do with the quality of being able to face up to fear. Mr. Rudolph, for example, is obviously quite brave (as well as, imo, being a nut- but the nut part is a value judgment, the brave part is sustained by my understanding of the dictionary definition of "brave"). The way you use brave makes it sound like it has to have a component of goodness. I'm sure some marauding Vikings were brave, and Attilla's hordes, and Roman legions sacking towns, and Goths, and Visigoths- but that doesn't mean they wouldn't rape and loot and slaughter babies on pikes. I have seen no evidence that being able to kill innocents, and being able to function in the face of danger have anything to do with each other- although there may be an inverse corrleation- in that people who are willing to die, and are very "brave", don't hold other's lives in high regard either. You may, of course, define brave any way you want, but this is the dictionary definition: brave adj 1: possessing or displaying courage; able to face and deal with danger or fear without flinching; "Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver but less daring"- Herman Melville; "a frank courageous heart...triumphed over pain"- William Wordsworth; "set a courageous example by leading them safely into and out of enemy-held territory" [syn: courageous, fearless] [ant: cowardly] 2: invulnerable to fear or intimidation; "audacious explorers"; "fearless reporters and photographers"; "intrepid pioneers" [syn: audacious, dauntless, fearless, intrepid, unfearing] 3: brightly colored and showy; "girls decked out in brave new dresses"; "brave banners flying"; "`braw' is a Scottish word"; "a dress a bit too gay for her years"; "birds with gay plumage" [syn: braw, gay] n 1: a North American Indian warrior 2: people who are brave; "the home of the free and the brave" [ant: timid] v : face or endure with courage; "She braved the elements" [syn: weather, endure, brave out] Cowardly- cowardly adj : lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted; "cowardly dogs, ye will not aid me then"- P.B.Shelley [syn: fearful] [ant: brave] ............... I don't see the jihadists as "fearful" and I think it would be a big mistake if anyone fighting against them saw saw them that way either.