I think it's worth noting, in epitaph of this discussion, that such explorations almost invariably follow the same model.
Someone brings these two acts of horrendous terrorism up in the context of memorial events.
People like you and me and a small group of others state the simple moral and historic reality of the situation, and condemn the decision to commit these hundred-fold 9/11s.
And then it begins - the firebombing of the conversation by droves of apologists for terror, vastly outnumbering the thoughtful and informed with their certain ignorance and concretely immoral reasoning.
They repeat the same lies and excuses again and again, and will not be pulled from their ignorance, steadfastly embracing it all the more tightly as they're faced with the reality of the monstrous terror they describe as sacred and good and necessary.
Having repeatedly stated the facts, people like you and me drop out of the conversation; one by one we depart, but not before certain other cliches are introduced.
There are always a handful who swear that their father or grandfather (sometimes it's a beloved uncle, or the parent or grandparent of a spouse) was about to deploy to the Pacific, and if not for these outrageous acts of terror, they themselves might well not have been born!
Thus reality and morality and reason themselves, had they originally prevailed in these instances, are the very enemy of their existence.
An enemy to be battled and belittled as fiercely decades later as the people who, like the Germans, the Russians and the Americans, had horrendous acts of terror committed in their name.
And inevitably, there is one individual, armored with impenetrable ignorance, who comes not so much to mop up the madness, but to wax and polish it.
This one individual will endlessly repeat the lies which justify (and in a fashion which would embarrass even bin Laden) the two most horrendous acts of terror in human history.
Again and again they will claim these acts of terror were sacred and just; like a two year old who's just discovered the words "no" and "mine," they will repeat their mindless lies again and again and again.
And so these conversations end, dark ignorance not so much prevailing as insisting upon itself against all good and common sense, til at last there is only silence.
Take care, Gipper, and good to interact with you here.
