One man's freedom fighter is another man's vermin. All such vermin believe they are defending their people. That doesn't make them right...it just makes them similar, that's all.

I don't see any point cheerleading one lot of vermin while they massacre another lot.

I'm using the word "vermin" loosely here, though, you understand.

People call rats vermin too...but if you get to know rats they are actually highly intelligent and likeable creatures, but they'll fight like hell when they feel mortally threatened.

So, a Hamas fighter is "vermin" to the Israelis, but an Israeli tank driver or soldier or pilot is "vermin" to the Palestinians whose houses are bulldozed and whose land is stolen. An Iraqi insurgent is vermin to the American soldiers who torture him. An American contractor is vermin to the Iraqi insurgents who murder him.

And yet, all these vermin feel morally justified, don't they?

Calling people vermin doesn't help solve the problem, and the problem is not terrorism. The problem is injustice, inequality, and power politics in the World. The problem is that EVERY aggressor nation and EVERY aggressor individual follows the dictate of Mao Tse-Tung: "Political power comes out of the barrel of a gun." Terrorism is a symptom of the problem. It's frequently a reaction to previous terrorism, which was usually itself a reaction to previous terrorism.

In the Middle East, if you go back quite a way, the Persians terrorized the whole region for a long time. Then Alexander the Great terrorized the Persians. At a later date, Mohammed's armies terrorized those who didn't feel inclined to join his new faith. At an even later date the Turks terrorized the region. Then the British and French defeated the Turks, and they took over terrorizing the region. In 1948 the Israelis commenced to terrorize the region, and the people they were terrorizing commenced to terrorize the Israelis. That's still going on. Saddam did his own terrorizing, and the USA and Britain are back again to terrorize.

Now, what makes you think that the "vermin" are only on one side of the issue?

- LH