Fight for Freeform said:
Normal people can go crazy. Need I mention Tom Cruise?
For one, this is a false analogy since Tom Cruise hasn't killed anyone (that we know of anyway). Secondly, how do you know Tom Cruise was ever "normal"?
They weren't born retarded or anything like that.
No, but they were likely born a sociopath or psychopath or born with some other serious mental disorder that resulted in mass murder.
They were both convicted in that what they were doing was right. Even MORALLY right!
So what? Moral relativism is bullshit. There is right and wrong, and if your sense of right and wrong means that killing innocent people is right, then you are crazy, bat shit insane and cannot be considered a normal part of humanity. I don't know what you could possibly do that would be MORE crazy than killing hundreds or thousands of innocent people.
Again, this goes back to "an eye for an eye".
An eye for an eye is primitive but effective justice in the biblical (or koranical, if that is how it is presented in the Koran) sense, PROVIDED THAT THE PERSON WHO IS BLINDED IS THE PERSON WHO PERSONALLY BLINDED YOU. In other words, if John killed Mary, then Mary's husband could be justified in killing John. If John killed Mary, but Mary's husband killed innocent bystander Susan, then Mary's husband is not just, and is quite likely not normal mentally.
Why did the Spanish Inquisition occur?
Because of certain political reasons but mostly because of CRAZY PEOPLE.
Such brutality, an ARMY of terrorists (not just a handful of people) did what they did, even kill women and children with their bare hands, because they thought they were morally in the right.
Because they were crazy. What you are saying is the very definition of someone who isn't normal, someone who isn't right in the head, and someone who you cannot morally justify.
This ties directly into religion. It ties into the concept of Justice, which "an eye for an eye" originally points to. The problem is, you take that sentance ALONE, and it doesn't seem like Justice, it seems like Revenge.
Eye for an eye is not really at all relevant to what Atta or McVeigh did though, since none of their victims had ever personally done anything to them.
True Christians, Jews, and Muslims who believe that God said this, know that if they read just a few more passages, there are also concepts such as "turn the other cheek" and passages regarding patience. They can see that God doesn't want to see revenge, and they have enough religious knowledge to define revenge and define justice without blurring the very fine line between the two.
Again, these guys are crazy. A normal person can read the Bible or the Koran and understand that moderation needs to be applied. A crazy person will read it and take every word literally and use it to justify his abnormal world view and crazy actions.
You have a complete interpretation versus a narrow interpretation. Even with the narrow interpretation, nowhere does it say to kill INNOCENT people. How that concept was introduced into Islam is something I'm looking at right now...and in a phrase, the whole justification by radical Muslims is that "the ends justify the means, even if the means are hated by God because the ends are loved by God.".
The difference between a normal person and a crazy person is this: a normal person knows that hurting other people is wrong, under almost any circumstance. A normal person understands moderation in response. A crazy person doesn't. A crazy person is someone who decides that killing innocent people is A-OK.
I went overboard here, going back to my original point, is that these people turn twisted over time. Their ideas, beliefs, and view of the World did change with events. How many Americans wanted to mercilessly bomb the hell out of Afghanistan after 9/11?
How many Americans actually hijacked planes or planted explosives in buildings full of innocent Afghanis? There's the clear distinction here.
These sane, normal Americans suddenly turn into crazed bloodthirsty people because of an event that has changed their view and understanding of the World. In the same way, Atta could have seen something that got his blood boiling and got him to do it. Back that up with some "moral justification" and he'll actually go through with it.
You can't apologize for these animals though. A normal, sane person would say "Gee, American troops in Saudi Arabia just doesn't justify my flying a plane into a building of innocent people".
And when fighting terrorism, this must be realized. Terrorists can be created. You can have normal people who don't have an opinion for or against you, suddenly hate your guts and want to kill you because they see you as absolute evil.
No to the bolded part. A normal person would not do that. A normal person might get fed up with a military occupation and join a resistance force as is happening in Iraq, but he wouldn't fly a plane into the WTC because of a few US military bases in Saudi Arabia.
Remember, Al Qaida attacked
before the US had done anything. The US wasn't invading any Muslim country at the time, wasn't bombing any, and was generally minding its business as a good global citizen. The US wasn't cowboy happy until AFTER the attacks.
Now a bit on another topic...
On the topic of "creating terrorists", I am referring to creating hatred towards the US. Now, some short-sighted people say that this means to "appease terrorists", in order to make them happy and not attack us. This is not the case and it's illogical. When the American forces finally decided to attack Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda hidden in Tora Bora...most Muslims were indifferent.
What's sad here is that "most Muslims were indifferent". When really, for any Muslim of true faith, the response should be "How can we help to catch that fucker Bin Laden as soon as possible and help the US eviscerate his murdering carcass?"
But prior to that, when the goal was first to oust the Taliban, and you saw innocent women and children getting killed in the thousands, Muslims were outraged.
Were Muslims outraged when it was the Taliban killing women and children? I imagine many were upset. I wonder if most moderate Muslims would say it's better for Muslims to kill and torture other Muslims than for Americans to do so, or if morally, the two are equally bad.
And when the US captured Saddam Hussien, Muslims in general were happy (some indifferent), yet when the news of torture that involved the bashing of Islam came out, Muslims started hating the US.
It's all about tactic...it's all about the manner in which the US is fighting the war on terror. It's NOT about STOPPING the war on terror as some short sighted people claim.
The Islam bashing is unfortunate but it's not like you can make Al Qaida terrorists MORE likely to commit terror. These guys are already committed. They were willing to kill themselves to kill Americans and other westerners BEFORE a single US bomb or troop attacked any Muslim lands or peed on any copy of the Koran.