Let’s say hypothetically a terrorist organization, let’s call them Hamas, attacks a community they hate, let’s say the jews, kill civilians indiscriminately, rape women and then kill them, parade them naked where they live and then spit on their dead bodies. They take hostages and force some women among the hostages into sex slavery. Let’s just they follow a extremist version of a repressive 7th century ideology which grants them permission to do all these things during war and let’s just hypothetically assume that I know what I am talking about because I have read the book I am talking about.
Well, how do you deal with this? They think their evil has a stamp of approval of God (the one with a big G). What punishment apart from death penalty would you prescribe to these distinguished gentlemen who kill, rape & kill, torture innocent people in the name of God?
How should a country who was attacked deal with these people? I think they know, but I was wondering if we know.
Now, for those who will try to justify these actions by whataboutery, I just want you to know that I don’t approve of the disgusting Israeli settlements of Jews in Palestine either. I think they should end it “a few decades ago”. But, this was not the reason Hamas attacked Israel. I notice that this isn’t the behavior you engage in if you even want military victories. You don’t rape women and kill them because the country the woman belongs to has occupied your land (Gaza hasn’t been under Israeli control since 2003, btw)
Literally none of what you claimed in the opening paragraph happened but go off. Palestine will carry on with the operation whether you agree with it or not, all you have is impotent rage.
How about we turn this around a bit? Instead of asking, “What should be done with them?”, let’s try it a bit more personal.
Suppose you woke tomorrow and found yourself in a hospital room. A doctor comes in and says, “Ah! You’re awake! And you’ll be pleased to know we’ve cured you.”
Physically and mentally you feel (in this scenario) just as you do now - normal, healthy, but perhaps a bit puzzled.
“What was wrong with me?” you ask.
“Ah, well, you’d gone crazy for a bit there. It was like a virus, lots of people in your town caught it. It… influences its victims. You had it for years. You killed about a dozen people. Rape. Torture. That sort of thing.”
“What?!”
“Don’t worry - you were confused, not yourself. You believed that rape, murder, torture, kidnapping, and all that was acceptable. But now you’re fine. Go in peace.”
Could you simply go back to your life? Would changing your life, dedicating it to serve in the memory of those you killed, be enough for you to live with yourself from then on?
Would everyone around you constantly wonder if you were really cured, and worry that perhaps you’d kill again? Or fear that since you caught this virus, you might be susceptible to others that may come down the road, with the same or worse consequences?
What are the options? Obviously, if you are still dangerous, there are fewer. But what if these people suddenly came to the realization that their actions were as horrible as we find them to be - what are their options?
A. Suicide - can’t live with the memory, or the possibility of relapse;
B. Incarceration - be sequestered from others (either voluntarily or by society) due to possibility of relapse;
C. Execution - it doesn’t bring back the dead, but it assures no new dead from your hand.
D. Brain wipe - but we don’t have that yet.
What’s the answer?
I have that virus. It’s latent within me, it’s programmed into me. I have seen it in others and I have seen it in myself.
The way I manage that is I carry a weapon so I don’t have to beg when someone else’s virus decides to attack me.
And if someone treats me as a potential threat, I don’t get offended when they take steps to make themselves safe against me. I know it’s not personal. I am dangerous, just like the rest of us.
I think me knowing that I’m dangerous makes me less dangerous. And I work to integrate the two states of consciousness: me not being mind controlled by the virus, and me being mind controlled by the virus. I work to merge it into my conscious mind, so that it’s close enough to control. I don’t want to be Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, with both unconscious of the other. I want to be one man who is the two of them integrated.
I integrate my angel with my demon in order to prevent those moments when it’s only the demon running me. Better to have a mix of the two than one, then the other, and back and forth.
Remember when Osama Bin Laden watched porn in a hovel in Pakistan for nearly two decades and then was unceremoniously dumped into the ocean?
Well at least we spent $2.3 trillion, had 7,000 US soldiers die, another 70,000 civilian casualties, 8 million refugees… And oh? The fundamentalists are back in power in Afghanistan?
If international justice was cut and dry, so simple, so surgical, maybe we wouldn’t even need wars and terrorism? The hard truth for the average Israeli reeling from these attacks is sadly the most radical piece of religious advice out there: an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
The best funded terror organization will never defeat the most vicious. It’ll never ever end.
As much as I dislike Islam, I don’t think Islam is the reason for the latest massacre. Certainly it is used to justify horrendous actions etc, but the root here is Israels occupation of Palestine.
With the latest news this morning… it seems things are getting worse as I feared
I sincerely hope that civilians on both sides are able to stay safe during this conflict. We need peace, and we need it fast, because too many innocents are dying. I really hope a peace deal can be brokered as soon as possible.
Killing in the name of God is wrong by default, of we consider that God loves each human. But if God loves every single person, God still doesn’t interfere in this bloodshed.
Potential punishments? Make them clean the ‘mess’ that they created(bodies, blood, etc.), pay for damages in money/equipment, and potentially life sentences.
I know, sound very basic, but that can realistically work.
