I am musing today on the Moslem problem. What exactly is this problem? That's the first thing to decide. Well, the problem is that Moslems believe
that not only is killing people indiscriminately okay, it is in fact a good
thing. (You can argue that all Moslems
don't believe that and you'd be right but so long as thousands of them do
believe it the rest don't really matter)
Now I'm assuming that the terrorists truly believe that they are doing a
good thing and that is the root of
the problem.
In
considering this subject we have to think about the unpleasant subject of
killing in general. Let's simplify it
and call it murder. If we come upon a
person in the act of murdering another person we conservatives would favor
murdering the perpetrator. By that
direct act we are preventing another worse act.
At least we see it that way. It
gets a little more complicated if we don't actually see the whole crime being
committed. Let's consider another
possibility. We come upon a person
raping another person. At my age the
only way I can really stop it is to kill the rapist. Is that truly the moral and correct thing to
do? Most of us wouldn't hesitate if the victim was
friend or family, but it might not be so clear cut in other cases.
How about a
death sentence handed down by a court of law?
Personally I have always favored execution as a preventative measure
rather than a punishment. Nearly all
violent criminals continue to commit violent crimes - especially those that
have been jailed for some period. It
also doesn't make any sense to support a person in jail for 50 years who cannot
be released into society. But, do we
really have the RIGHT to murder a person when they are not in the act of
committing a heinous crime? Hmmm
So the one
time that we have a clear cut right and obligation to kill is on the battlefield,
right? The soldier in uniform is acting
to protect his home and country and has a definite right to kill the enemy (and
perhaps some collateral damage?) when so ordered by his superiors. Hmmm, that doesn't seem exactly correct
somehow. In the modern world the order
comes down like "drop a bomb or missile on a particular house in a
particular village where an enemy is hiding." So the soldier executes those orders as given
and perhaps we kill an enemy and perhaps we kill some folks who are not
enemies. Let's see now, those orders are
made by superior officers up to and including the commander in chief after they
consider the totally accurate intelligence gathered by the moral folks in the
field. And those stone age Muslims hate
us because they say WE kill indiscriminately.
Really makes you think, doesn't it?
Disclaimer: I don't
intend to draw any conclusion from the above, I only believe it warrants
careful consideration by thinking Americans.
I certainly hope someone will point out the error of my musing above
because I don't like the direction it takes me.
