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The Guardian Deletes Osama Bin Laden's 'Letter to America'

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Re: The Guardian Deletes Osama Bin Laden's 'Letter to America'

#21

Post by jameslk »

> The Guardian has removed a letter written by Osama Bin Laden, explaining his war against the United States is partly because of its support of Israel, after it had gone viral on TikTok.

If I recall correctly, the terrorists attacked the US because they "don't like freedom". That was the narrative on TV nonstop and any wavering from full support of the wars or "supporting the troops" was tantamount to supporting terrorists.

The irony being "terrorists" are just viewed as "martyrs" and "freedom fighters" on the other side of the coin, and every bomb dropped fighting them resulting in civilian deaths creates new terrorists/freedom fighters, who then go on to attack again killing more civilians, creating more radicals on the other side, who then bomb killing even more civilians. It's a cycle that never ends.

Re: The Guardian Deletes Osama Bin Laden's 'Letter to America'

#22

Post by fshbbdssbbgdd »

rootsudo wrote: post #16
xwdv wrote: post #14

[flagged]

One persons terrorist is another persons freedom fighter. Your thought pattern only adds more fuel to the fire that there is wrong think.

If there isn’t “wrong think”, is there any “right think” either? Just nihilism?

Re: The Guardian Deletes Osama Bin Laden's 'Letter to America'

#24

Post by faeriechangling »

xwdv wrote: post #14

[flagged]

>[Terrorists are] murderous threats to civilized society who must be destroyed absolutely without question or hesitation, by whatever means necessary.

I heard many people talk like you do maybe 20 years ago. This sort of mindset resulted in two wars which killed over a million people, did no good for anybody, and never stopped terrorism from happening. FAR more people died in the global war on terror than have ever died at the hands of actual terrorists.

You should ABSOLUTELY hesitate, ask questions, and refuse to use any means to resolve the issue when facing murderous threats to civilised society. Those are very very good ideas.

Re: The Guardian Deletes Osama Bin Laden's 'Letter to America'

#26

Post by nverno »

rootsudo wrote: post #16
xwdv wrote: post #14

[flagged]

One persons terrorist is another persons freedom fighter. Your thought pattern only adds more fuel to the fire that there is wrong think.

No, I think it's pretty clear what a terrorist does - target civilians on purpose. But, terrorists can certainly be freedom fighters as well or vice versa.

Re: The Guardian Deletes Osama Bin Laden's 'Letter to America'

#29

Post by hliyan »

xwdv wrote: post #14

[flagged]

> must be destroyed absolutely without question or hesitation, by whatever means necessary.

Somewhat ironically, this is how members of terrorist organisations usually justify their means, particularly, their defining characteristic: the targeting of civilians.

Re: The Guardian Deletes Osama Bin Laden's 'Letter to America'

#30

Post by s1artibartfast »

xwdv wrote: post #14

[flagged]

So here is the thing, Terrorist and terrorism is orthogonal to all that. It is a description of action. It says nothing about goals, which can be right, wrong, noble, or despicable.

Someone can spread terror for a good cause or bad cause.

Terrorism fully compatible and justifiable with utilitarian ethics. As utilitarian ethics become increasingly popular, you should expect terrorism to become less repugnant.

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