FRANCE!

I have but one comment about the situation.

The Bible says justice is an eye for an eye.

The Quran has passages that translate to:
Slay them wherever ye find them and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. - 2:191
Fight against them until idolatry is no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme. - Sura 2:193

Nearly every religion has committed atrocities in the name of their God. Until humans learn to accept differences among people, this will never end. From John's point of view, Ahmed is a terrorist. From Ahmed's point of view, John is evil.

“An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Condolences to the people of France.

One thing that irks me is the hashtag and generally popular responses: "pray for Paris" and "pray for peace".

To which god are they praying? The one that willed this to happen? Or the one who did nothing to stop it?

I think it is just a substitute for saying "hoping" or "wishing well" etc. Etc. I also pray Everyday (a Buddhist pray, talks about patience, mercy, using conscious etc.) not to any god but rather to encourage myself.

There is a fraction of people who mean it symbolically. But there are also many - probably the majority - who mean to catch the ear of God.

To the victim's friends and families, I offer my sincere condolences as a New Yorker and 9/11 first responder; I know your pain intimately and I have no doubt you will demonstrate the resolve necessary to overcome these heinous acts. For now though, your sadness is understandable and justified.


I can see you're itching for a debate, so I'll oblige a bit by offering this, then I'm moving on.

That you feel what you put forth, especially that "documentary", as something factual is part of the problem (actually it's a huge part of the problem). This is something that transcends politics; how one reacts to adversity or oppression is dictated primarily by cultural/ethical/religious influences. If you care to dispute that I ask you take a beat to consider other similarly exploited/persecuted groups in recent history and objectively reflect on how they responded before you tell me I'm some sort of "neocon."

Pseudo-intellectualism and hand-wringing over Western rights and wrongs isn't going to solve anything here; simplistically, sometimes you have to punch the nose of the guy that punches you. Want to say that the US is a bully? Go right ahead, but we aren't beating on people who are just standing around on the sidelines minding their own business like the poor victims out having a nice Friday night in Paris or the 2K+ that went to work or boarded planes on 9/11. That's barbarism.

Said what I had to say for the most part, I'll not respond to what is sure to be a partisan-driven response, so have a nice day.

We pray for the innocent !!!

Too much pain !!!

I have stayed away hoping my blood would stop boiling, so I would not speak from that part of me that just wants to avenge these killings. I too was a first responder and lost many friends in 9-11, and I too understand the human and animal need to fight back...but there are two things to consider:

1- The same instinct that drives us to want blood for blood, which is righteous and natural...is the instinct that feeds the men and women on the other side of this war. Most people (avoiding labels of conservatives, liberals, right or left for now) that just want to hate, close the borders and fight back with force would be joining ISIS or Al Qaeda or a similarly radical group if they had been born in Iran, or Irak, or Syria etc...because it is not a battle of good or evil, it's a battle of emotion and the manipulation of human emotion to justify political means. If your family and friends where killed on bombings or attacks perpetrated by the west you would feel a need to avenge...if then there is a radical group that justifies and feeds your anger and gives it form, then you will automatically join that force, because it resonates at the core of your, often justified, human anger.

If the force manipulating you is a wester government that wants control over Oil treaties and economic trade supremacy since the early 20th century (and no, it did not start only with America as them problem really generated by the Rothschilds, french and British strategies culminating on post WW1 division of the middle east against promised support in exchange of the Arab leagues help fighting turkey...and the subsequent imposition of the jewish estate in Israel a few decades later)...(or think south and central america american policies on the second half of the 20th century)...or if the hate is being channeled through some extremist liberating group that really just poses for an attempt to create an new eastern empire and world domination for religious reasons but it comes only to be opportunistic power mongering...it will still resonate on you, and you will still join the rhetoric, because your thirst is for revenge and justice, and your perspective can't help but being limited by your social and geographical location.

2-The biggest success of 9/11 for Al Qaeda is that it enabled the western united anger to become unleashed...the initial taking of Afghanistan was viewed as justified even by the eastern world....but what happened next was just our pain and need for justice being manipulated to justify a massive series of mistakes...to justify the killing of hundreds of thousand of innocent people that, in exchange, gave the Extremist terrorist groups a large pool for recruitment. Because let's face it, if you give me, or most of us, a gun right now, or after 9-11...and a target to shoot at...We would shoot, because we are human, and angry, and righteous. A boy that never even thought of anything beyond his town, only to see his family and friends killed by a drone attack has the same blood running through his veins than we do...and if someone gives him a gun and a target he, too, will shoot.

In Short, understand that we are fighting ourselves, and every action we take has a re-action, and that reaction in turn justifies a new action.

The solution? I don't know, but to stop relying on Oil trades with them and stop supporting fake or proxy allied governments like Arabia Saudi that play the double game would be a start. Turn a military problem into a socio economic one.

But more bullets will only create more hate; on both sides.

I don't think they need a wave of refugees to plant any terrorist cells. Given that the US and EU are actually EXPORTING radicals that are joining ISIL I think it's a fair thing to assume there is enough of a pool within our countries already to reign havoc. And that's not counting our own crazies. Also I don't think it is difficult for well organized terrorism to "visit" the western countries as tourists and then do their thing. They have the founding they have the means and the organization, they have done it that way so far and will continue to do so.

So no, the refugee issue is a different one, let's not throw the babies out with the bath water. Does this mean that there may not be any future incidents with a refugee or two? not by any means, there may be plenty, but the percentage against actual refugee count will probably be negligible.

It it natural to group threats in our minds, but it is not realistic nor sensible when you think about it in broader terms. There are mexican cartels and crime therefore kick out al mexicans and close the border...there are Islamic terrorists, close borders and go after all Islamics....oh wait...there was and is the IRA in Ireland...fυck it, let's kick the Irish out...ETA and the Vasc country? shit, there go Spaniards and along them yours truly....there is national terrorism in Oklahoma..close that border....MIlitias in Michigan...Close that border too, can't trust Michigan people. Italians are all MAFIA and Russians for sure all commies....close those too

Catholics had the inquisition and crusades...can't trust them...Puritans hunted and burned witches...can't trust them...Americans killed the Native Americans, planted small pocks in their blankets, took over the land...If I was Native American I would close that border too. The British India and Africa...oh, you know they have it in them, can't trust them. The French killed their own monarchs, sorry, too risky, close that border. Think Swedes are too tall and pretty, just for that they're out. Switzerland are war profiteers, who ever knows what side they're in? Close the border.

Point being, apply a general rule of logic consistently, Logic forever to it's final consequence like Albert Camus writes and what are you left with? But of course one can be discerning, one can choose which logic to apply where to serve our own acquired values but so can they do on the other side of the fence. And who is right?

Life is not Utopic, I get it. War and blood are part of humanity, things are what they are. But at least we can drop the charade and be honest. It's a war of interest, not a War of ethics. It's humanity being humanity at it's animal best. It's Nature.

It is one of them things that makes no sense at all.

One mans terrorist is another mans patriot. It's just the way it was, is and will be.

For sure, asked the British how the felt about the separatist radical terrorism that resulted on the loss of their American colonies, and then ask Americans the same question about the freedom fighters that founded a Nation for all people governed by the people.... As Bond says, it's a matter of perspective.