Reply #41: I disapprove (more than disapprove) and it doesn't depend on the ethnicity [View All]

Not only was I on London public transport the day before the July bombings; I lived for many years with a significant threat from the IRA.

But do you honestly think that there are NOT quite a few places in the world where people think that attacking civilians is OK if it benefits your country or cause? What do you think about the American and British war on Iraq?

No; this didn't cause, let alone justify, the actions of Hamas.

But we are not going to solve or prevent many problems, now or in the future (and I'm not just referring to I/P)if we don't acknowledge that there are a significant number of people who *will* attack those of an out-group in the name of a cause; and not necessarily in defence of civilians; and that this is often glorified.

From a Scottish Jacobite folk song:

"I once had sons but now I have none;
I bred them toiling sarely
But I would bear them all again
To live and die for Charlie."

From Wilfred Owen's famous WW1 poem, "Dulce et Decorum Est", about the death of a soldier from gassing:

"If you could see ..

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old lie, "Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori."


Children 'ardent for some desperate glory' have been indoctrinated to die and kill for religious and nationalist and other causes, over the centuries. In war, and in terrorist acts - listen to some Irish folk songs! In the past, it is true that fewer people and in particular fewer civilians died as a result(though the fighters often had no more choice than many of their modern counterparts). Due to the development of ever more powerful weapons, war and terror can kill far more people at once now than in the past. So it's even more important now to keep these dangers in mind. Not to justify Hamas or the still uglier Islamic Jihad. But to acknowledge that this all represents a dangerous and easily-exploited, aspect of human nature that can and does arise anywhere.