# Call this civilised behaviour? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 10, 2003, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-this-civilised-behaviour/218149 "2003-12-10T15:04:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-this-civilised-behaviour/218149/41 "2003-12-12T01:28:46Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by SentientMeat \* \*\*If you are the one throwing lethal explosives around, surely the burden of responsibility is on _you_ to _ensure_ an absence of children by, I don’t know, **looking at the target with your own very eyes**. This argument is complete nonsense. Americans are not “the one throwing lethal explosives around.” Fifteen bombs can go off in baghdad hospitals, police stations, and red cross outposts INTENTIONALLY killing 150 civilians, but when American forces storm a house or drop a bomb specifically designed to do as little extraneous damage as possible to kill one of the men setting these bombs, they are considered the aggressors. Don’t make any assumptions about this situation that you can’t or haven’t learned from the news. You are assuming that Americans were negligent and aggressive in this attack, but you don’t know whether this terrorist intentionally surrounded himself with children in order to protect himself (which, by the way, terrorists, including saddam hussein himself, have been known to do) or whether the children were led there intentionally to be public martyrs (which, by the way, is also something terrorists have done in the past). It doesnt take too much hard thinking to come up with a scenario that makes much more sense than “12 children happened to be playing in a terrorist’s house where he manufactured bombs to intentionally kill civilians, when an American bomb detonated.” Use your damned brain. Your arguments seem to stem more from a jealousy or hatred of America itself than from any kind of logic or reasoning. Im not asking you to agree with America’s wars or military operations. By all means, protest them, and I’ll stand right beside you, shouting about the evil of war until nobody listens anymore. But dont idolise terrorists any more than they already have been just for the sake of your spite. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-this-civilised-behaviour/218149/42 "2003-12-12T11:31:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mosier \* > **…Your arguments seem to stem more from a jealousy or hatred of America itself than from any kind of logic or reasoning. Im not asking you to agree with America’s wars or military operations. By all means, protest them, and I’ll stand right beside you, shouting about the evil of war until nobody listens anymore. But dont idolise terrorists any more than they already have been just for the sake of your spite.** Are we reading different threads? Is this a different **SentientMeat** you are posting about. Where do you get off being so offensive? – “making assumptions,” “(hating) America,” “(idolising) terrorists,” “your spite” – on what evidence do you base these characterizations. How dare you! ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-this-civilised-behaviour/218149/43 "2003-12-12T11:45:55Z")
Goodness, **Mosier** , are you ever barking up the wrong tree about **SentientMeat**. Let me explain the reason for the criticism, in simple terms so you’ll understand: we _expect_ the terrorists to be murderous. That is what they do. However, we do not expect a liberal democracy to be criminally negligent. Got it? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-this-civilised-behaviour/218149/44 "2003-12-12T14:28:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Aldebaran \* > \*\*I freely admit that my countries aren’t a paradise for everyone there but where do you need to go to find a heaven on earth. > \*\* Here you go, **Aldebaran**. [Heaven on earth](http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-05-14-iraq-grave_x.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Aldebaran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Aldebaran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aldebaran)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-this-civilised-behaviour/218149/45 "2003-12-13T03:11:07Z")
Jackm Care to explain the purpose of your post to the innocent audience? Thank you. Salaam. A ---
**Author:** ![Phoenix\_Dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Phoenix\_Dragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phoenix_Dragon)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2003, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-this-civilised-behaviour/218149/46 "2003-12-13T04:29:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mehitabel \* > **Which is all the more reason the parents shouldn’t have let a terrorist stay in an encampment in the middle of their town. Burn the place down, at least.** May I note that if you’re living in a fairly poor region effectively in anarchy, pissing off the guys with all the guns is not the wise thing to do… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2003, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-this-civilised-behaviour/218149/47 "2003-12-16T09:21:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*. … Or, perhaps, you were aiming a gun at killer who has recently murdered your family and is threatening to murder your friends, and it goes off and kills a kid in the room. Still not _right_, but you can’t just leave the reasons for the strikes out of the equation. \*\* … or perhaps you were targeting a killer who has recently murdered your family and is threatening to murder your friends; the thing is he’s in an uncleared public building and you choose to **bomb** the place from a safe distance. (where he might have children as screens near him) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/call-this-civilised-behaviour/218149.md?page=2)