Its all context.
Remember: Fairness, justice, evenness, these are all fictions we've created.
And so the context is important. OBL thinks he's a hero for what he's done. He wants to kill more Americans - the word "innocent" is meaningless to him.
Which in his context is fine.
In our context, it means we've got to kill him, and his buddies.
If you look for a completely "centered" viewpoint, you end up a fundamentalist - and you cannot tolerate anyone not centered at least close to you. Or at least, most people can't.
Good point about the Japanese - I actually had forgotten that. OTOH, they did try to invade a small part of the U.S. - a machinegun bunker on one of the Alaskan islands, but that doesn't really count for much. Still...
Couple Islands, actually. But that was a feint in the Battle of Midway. The plan was that the US commanders there would start screaming, the Fleet would set sail from Pearl, go north to head off the Japanese, Midway would get hit, they'd change directions, and sail into a pincher of battleships supported by aircraft.
So it wasn't a "serious" attack, and they abandoned it later.
I'm saying, "Hell, yeah, let's go bust a cap in his ass, but let's also take steps to make sure that we're not back here in another 20 years." And no, that doesn't mean turning the area into glass, but it sure doesn't mean bending over and letting OBL ream us with a 747.
And context gets us again.
I mean, we *could* abandon Israel. Get out of every foreign affair, and just retreat back to the US mainland. That's the most obvious step to "avoid" these problems. But as you note, there are times when we take a moral imperative. Bombing the Serbs - when none of the Europowers wanted to Be Involved. Why? Mainly because there was a lot of downside, and not a *lot* of gain. Why get the serb's pissed, and possibly having terrrorist attacks, etc, getting the boys killed.... In the short term, its easier, better, safer to "mind your own business".
And as you know, sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. If you saw a woman getting raped, would you act? If you said yes, then you're not thinking about it. It would depend, wouldn't it? On what you did, and how?
If you saw a woman being raped by one guy, you'd act differently than by a bunch of guys, and probably differently if they visibly had weapons. What if they had weapons, and badges/uniforms? (IE, were the cops, or local military) - that would change how you acted, in each case, right?
Context is everything. And context is subject to interpretation.
Short answer: Life's a Bitch.
:)
Addison
