I mourn for those who have had their lives taken from them in this horrific and cowardly act.
I wish 'God speed' to the rescue personnel, and thank them.
I hope retaliation will be swift and merciless (mercy is unearned forgiveness), when it can be determined with certainty who was responsible.
The philosophic ideas (and the root: irrationalism) that are the cause of such horror can no longer be treated as though they are "just as good" as other philosophies. It is philosophy that determines every individual's outlook; it determines whether one will wake up and go to work and earn a moral living; or wake up, go to the airport, proceed to hijack airplanes and fly them into buildings, killing thousands of innocent people.
Every terrorist is an irrationalist, and every irrationalist is a potential terrorist; they can't all be killed, another would very easily replace each and every one. It is the philosophy of irrationalism (that which is anti-reason, anti-logic) that must be *intellectually* eradicated to as great an extent as possible. Terrorism will never cease to be a significant problem otherwise.
Killing terrorists that are responsible for such actions, is moral and just; it is an act of self-defense (America doesn't seek to gain an unearned value by defending itself against terrorists; just as someone who is being robbed gains no value by defending theirself from the robber - it is the robber who seeks to gain unearned value). However, terrorists are straw-men - as long as the philosophic ideas that lead to terrorism continue to be spread around the world, there will never be a shortage of straw-men. Destroy irrationalism, and it undercuts what leads to the terrorism in the first place (thus removing the process of new straw-men).
It obviously wouldn't be easy - it would require a sweeping philosophic movement the likes never seen before; one that the world only got a mere glimpse of with the Renaissance.
When it has gotten to the point where backpack nukes are an issue, and people hijacking planes and destroying large parts of civilization are a reality - the price payed for continued leniency and disregard toward those that are extremely irrational, is one that the civilized world can no longer afford to pay... if it is civilization that it hopes to maintain.
Make no mistake, the barbarians are philosophically (and physically) at the gates of Rome (not just the U.S., but the entire civilized world). Are you (I'm speaking to each and every individual reading this) going to stand around and watch it burn philosophically (and in line with the law of causality, burn in actuality)?
This comment was edited on Sep 12, 13:57.