or anything other than Disney movies.
I'm writing this after reading one too many descriptions of the Islamic terrorists of 9/11 and terrorists in general as "evil". Yes, it's fine to hate them, they destroy good things, this I know. However, you do not get to simplify these people to a black figure with glowing red eyes.
I'm not saying you should like them, I know I'd kill them if I got the chance, I'm not even touching our government's policies regarding them. All I'm saying is that you should look a little deeper than "they are our enemies, we are good, therefore they are evil, soulless, subhuman...". Respect them as humans, even if thy are humans who have made bad choices. They have had their difficulties, and they have made this choice as a way to affect change. We hate it, most of the world hates it, but is is a choice and you must admit it is effective (though hard to direct. it has big effects, but not always the desired effects for the terrorists). Try to understand that the people you see in masks with guns are, for the most part, not in it for the "joy of killing", but rather acting to change the circumstances which they find themselves in. You've perhaps seen the videos of the citizenry after we employed "smart bombs" in the gulf war? the people crying in grief and cursing our planes and our country as the charred bodies are carried by? Not everyone handles grief well. Maybe they want revenge. Maybe they're trying to get rid of oppressive governments. I don't think it matters in this case. They are people who have made a choice, and even if we disagree with their choice we can still respect them as people.
Why should I respect them? They behave as less than humans.
I agree with you to a degree. I don't believe they deserve respect though, but I'm not going to pretend that I think that's what I thought you meant. I know what you were saying.
I believe that they deserve understanding also. Terrorists are simply the military wing of a people who don't have a massive army at their disposal. Their actions don't need to be respected, but it is essential that they are understood in the right context; as acts of war.
The US has killed countless civilians in acts of extreme terrorism, acts which make 9/11 look like cherry bombs in the school restrooms. Nagasaki and Hiroshima for instance. But these are viewed in an almost noble light, as some kind of melancholic romantic view of casualties of war; good men forced to do bad things. The horror of war and all that jazz. But when a strike is made by the enemy, it suddenly becomes an act of unprecedanted evil. Suddenly there is the threat of evil, crazy, murder hungry monsters trying to pole vault into your home to eat your babies and rape your mom, while propagating Communism and molesting children.
The whole good vs evil mindset is generated and sustained by effective deployment of the right kind of propaganda. If you want to bomb the shit out of another country, it doesn't help you to have people asking 'why?', let alone having them trying to understand why the terrorists might be attacking them. You need them asking 'What are you waiting for?' then getting really worked up by the 'EVIL' and freaking out proper: 'Shit give me that, I'll go over there and do it myself. Where do I sign up?'.
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I am the people my mother warned me about.