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Yeah I read this today. I guess that you spend enough time dehumanising people eventually you can trick your mind into separating people into terrorists and non-terrorists. It reminds us that although the society we see around us appears to be a stable functional environment that rewards and punishes us, it is underpinned by a basic human empathy which is itself a product of the society . Under the right circumstances the mind forgoes empathy when it is no longer convenient, as in the case where you must make peace (reduce dissonance) with the fact that you are the commander of an evil institution created as a political stunt to help Americans get some sense of revenge.
I believe that America was fragile before 9/11 and is now beginning to implode upon itself unable to cope with the stress of the position that it occupies in the world. The rising household, government and foreign debt combined with the fact that oil is now being traded in euros is straining a world power that has no idea what it should be doing with its power and little values or wisdom beyond capitalism to offer to the world. Only the dominance in technology and booming tech industry will cushion America in the coming years.
Getting back to this article I'm somehow drawn to parallel's with Apocalypse Now. Add stress to any situation and you widen the possibilities of what people will accept or what they will do. In this case these individuals have become so divorced from reality that they see suicide as a personal attack on them because of the inconvenience that it serves to their purpose.
I guess we should all join Amnesty International? I have no idea how you convince an angry superpower to behave rationally.
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