Brian Williams wrote:
None of the religions you mentioned with the exception of Islam
promises eternal bliss for killing, in fact killing is seen as
wrong in all of them. How do you account for agnostics like myself
in your theory?
#### Actually, Christian soldiers of the Crusades were supposed to have a
guaranteed place in Heaven, if killed in action. Killing heretics was a good
Christian thing to do, and earned you brownie points with god.
---- I would have to re-read my history about Dresden, but I know both Tokyo and Berlin had military objectives. Hiding your militay elements amongst the civilian population eliminates the protection civilians supposedly enjoy. Besides there was no such thing as presicion bombing during WWII.#### The reason for carpet-bombing entire cities was largely to soften morale of the enemy, and to extract revenge for Coventry and London. The civilians had no say about the placement of military facilities - they were truly innocent. My mother, my girlfriend's mother - they could have been killed, if the bombs had fallen a hundred feet closer.
---- There is a difference between killing enemy soldiers where you yourself are also at some risk, and deliberately murdering unarmed civilians.
### This is a huge difference, exactly the difference between honourable soldiers, and despiccable, callous, dishonorable berserker terrorists, true scum of the earth. But what is it supposed to have to do with courage?
---- As I indicated, deliberately murdering unarmed civilians is a definition of cowardice (and a criminal act) in my book.
#### It's a apparent that our definitions of this simple word are widely divergent. As I indicated previously, my (and the dictionary's ) definition makes no reference to civilians, whether armed or not.
Since trying to continue a discussion about definitions of commonly used and usually unequivocal words tends to be fruitless, I suggest we disengage at at this point, and let each other use his words as he sees fit.
If anything, let me just mention that I asked a random sample of my English-speaking acquaintances about calling the 911 bombing "cowardly", and I they replied that this usage would be just an empty figure of speech, distinct from the primary meaning.
Rafal Smigrodzki, MD-PhD smigrodzkir@msx.upmc.edu
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