So a guy charging the line in WW1 knowing he will die for God and country is any different? Please...give your head a shake. Like I said they are many things but cowards isn't one of them.
Quite so Avro. It seems to drive some people apoplectic if anything is said about the 9/11 terrorists that does not denounce them soundly. That is patent nonsense.
While 9/11 terrorist were evil beings and they were the lowest of low life, they did have some attributes that cannot really be considered totally evil. They can be used to do good or evil, and they decided to use them to do evil.
One is bravery and nerves of steel. 9/11 was a complicated operation; it needed plenty of thought and planning. And they had to do it knowing that they were planning their own death. To me, that constitutes an act of bravery. As you point out, this is no different than a pilot in WWII going out on a mission, knowing that the situation is hopeless, he probably is going to die, but he was going to make life as difficult as he could for the Nazis.
Suicide itself is an act requiring plenty of courage. A person goes against the most basic, the strongest of instincts when committing suicide, the instinct of self preservation. I think it takes plenty of courage to commit suicide. Bu then to plan one’s suicide months in advance, make meticulous preparation for the mission knowing that you were facing certain death, that needs even more courage.
Another is keeping cool under enormous stress. When the terrorists got up that morning, got ready, drove to the airport, knowing that it was going to be the last day of their lives, I am sure they were under plenty of stress. But they performed flawlessly under stress.
Another attribute displayed by the terrorists (I wouldn’t call them virtues, as I said they could be used to do good or do evil, and they decided to use these attributes to do evil) is integrity. Not only they stayed true to their mission to the very end, I remember reading that Mohammed Atta sent back the leftover money (around 7000 $) to the financier in UAE.
Another is persistence and a sense of duty. These terrorists did not know how to fly planes when the embarked on the mission, they had to learn to fly. They actually enrolled in flying schools. They took lessons to build their upper body strength. They had plenty of persistence.
It will be senseless to deny that the terrorists possessed these qualities. Now as I said, they used them for evil purposes. But I don’t understand this philosophy that one has to constantly badmouth the terrorists or one is not considered patriotic. Bill Maher got into trouble for something similar to what I am saying here.
So to summarize, the terrorists were low life, the scum of the earth, the ultimate in evil, one could almost say the Disciples of Satan. On the other hand, they were brave, courageous, meticulous, persistent and were able to work well under enormous amount of stress.
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