What is the moral difference between us and them?

Fire
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What is the moral difference between us and them?

What is the moral difference between us and them?

What is the moral difference between a group of terrorists from Saudi Arabia flying planes into our world trade center, provoked by our support of the Saudi royal family and of Israel and us, making an unprovoked invasion of Iraq that has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands, possibly over a hundred thousand, and has turned hundreds of thousands of Iraqis into refugees?

What is the moral difference between the beheading of a mercenary "contractor" who knew the risks before he went over there and dropping bombs that kill children?

What is the moral difference between a solider of our occupying force who falls in battle while fighting against the resistance and the hundreds and hundreds of people who have been black bagged, turning up in secret prisons or in Abu Graib or Gitmo on the dubious suspicion that they were terrorists based on an anonymous tip, only to be tortured for years on end?

What is the moral difference between a "radical islamist," a person being defined as a muslim who considers the united states to be an enemy and an American, christian or otherwise who calls for war on Iran and other countries?

These are the heresies of US politics. Nobody can answer them because the essential truth is that terrorism is the warfare of the poor and warfare is the terrorism of the rich.


Loc
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The difference is the

The difference is the christians are right and the muslims are wrong of course. Serioulsy though, it's boils done to nothing more than a chance placement of birth.Those patriot christian soliders could have been born in Iraq.Everything they do is a product of their enviroment and upbringing.

I remember once at youth the youth leader used Osama bin Laden as an example of a evil person. I thought,"How can they say bin Laden is evil? In the eyes of his religion and culture,he is a hero. He would just as readily say that these christians are satan loving infidels. In fact, yawweh should wish he had such fervent followers.''

At the end the moral difference come down to religion based moral difference,which isn't much of a moral at all.

Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible

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This is getting redudnant. My patience with the unteachable[atheists] is limited.

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I AM GOD AS YOU
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We must fix the TV

  We must fix the TV and protect and expand the internet. World wide free communication, which means "Eat (destroy) the Rich" ..... Love the enemy, the wise did say .... that takes communication , open diplomacy for all the world people to see and share. So why is it not being vigorously promoted here in the west ? ......  Kill the enemy ???????????  yeah, Kill the rich ! .....


EXC
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Fire wrote:What is the moral

Fire wrote:
What is the moral difference between us and them?

Nobody can answer them because the essential truth is that terrorism is the warfare of the poor and warfare is the terrorism of the rich.

We're right cause our weapon are more powerful than their weapons.

God is always right cause he is more powerful than humans.

Might makes right is the true morality of religion, politics and war.

Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen


HeyZeusCreaseToe
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Moral Relativism Anyone?

They are playing by different rules(morality system) than we are, we deem their seeming lack of respect for civilian lives, children, and noncombatants as the main difference between our value systems, eventhough we do kill tons of these exact same types of people but in the name of freedom and democracy rather which is apparently the only rationalization one needs. This all reverts back to the question of absolute morality and whether it is an idea or if it really exists.

I would say these absolutes do not exist, because each society and its changing moral zeitgeist make their rules and formulate what is acceptable and what is deplorable in each context. This context or frame we are currently in tells us that those people are bent on a religious worldview that glorifies martyrdom(dying for the cause, usually in Allah's name, where the reward is eternal bliss with a constant orgy of 72 virgins, or perhaps sweet tasting raisins), Jihadist holy war(cultural and religious crusade to subvert the world into Islam), and that these people do not respect life in this world because it is a transitory stage on the way to the next where every action taken in good faith on behalf of Allah is permissible.

Basically, they have skipped the rules of personal survival and empathy for outgroup peoples in this world to go onto the next level and play in that world. We can't seem to wrap our heads around that concept politically, eventhough many Christians believe in the rapture and eternal punishment or salvation.(go figure).

That is an obviously simplistic frame of those who took us into war, not mine, but it is a very dominant view held in the US.

Your proposal about "terrorism is the warfare of the poor and warfare is the terrorism of the rich." seems very reminiscent of Chris Hedges writings about Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. I would tend to think, as I and others have said before, that might equals right. Those who can do what they want...will, those who can't....will try, and probably fail, but they will use every possible means at their disposal. The right in this day and age does not seem to equate only to physical military power, but also to spinning the facts and framing the P.R. media game to always paint your cause and nation as the good guys fighting the evildoers. It is a propaganda system that works and will continue to work so well that any actual discussion of moral rectitude concerning battlefield tactics in contrast to one's enemy's tactics is nothing more than a faint voice in the dark.

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda