The British Royal Air Force (“RAF”) says that some fighter pilots may have to kill themselves by ramming their plane into “a vehicle carrying a Taliban or al Qaeda commander.” The RAF believes that the British people respect the military because warriors have to make hard decisions like this.
In the movie Red Dawn, the Soviets invade America and an American teenager fighting against the Soviets blows himself up to kill a bunch of the evil communists.
Sacrificing one’s life for the benefit of others is celebrated in our culture. It is also celebrated in many other cultures. Suicide bombers are celebrated by some cultures for the same reason.
Personally, I think that attacks directed at civilians are reprehensible and I do not think that a suicide bombing in a market is the same as the above two situations. Even though I think there is a difference between the two actions, some people might not see a difference.
Even Western cultures didn’t differentiate between civilians and soldiers until a few hundred years ago. For thousands of years, it was ok to rape, pillage, and burn. You could kill any citizen of the enemy. It is only in recent times that our culture has adopted a rule against unnecessarily killing civilians.
A lot of Americans have a hard time understanding why there is so much support for terrorism. The major point that I am trying to make is that the difference between an honorable suicide attack and a terrorist suicide attack is very very small. It is important that Americans see that terrorists use tactics that are very very similar to our own.
Right now, America believes that terrorists are evil and deranged – this implies that they are rare. All we have to do is kill a “few bad apples” and the problem is solved. But, if we realized that terrorists are substantially similar to us, then we would not have such a silly attitude. We are not going to stop terrorism by killing a couple of people.
We are only going to reduce terrorists tactics with two things: first, spread the belief that attacks directed at civilians is wrong; second, fix the underlying issues that cause war.
Hi,i saw this artical accidentally. the title attracted me:) well, i agree with you that’spread the belief that attacks directed at civilians is wrong’, but you donot explain how to ‘fix the underlying issues that cause war’. i never believe that one real enjoy the process or result of killing oneself or others.there are must something push them to do so. turn to ‘these underlying issue’ now, i think they include at least three things:one is most time we cannot tolerate differences with ourselves, even want to change them; the other one is war is also driven by a profit,world is small and recources are limited; the final one is people donot realize to cherish lives. i also donot believe war in the world will stop or disappear one day, it similar to the competition among people, will exist with human being forever.ar least i think i cannnot see that in my life…