These false equivalences are indeed ridiculous.

[Bonobo]

3,000 deaths for 9/11 cannot be used to justify the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people just because they are of the same religion or from the same general region of the world as the hijackers who were responsible for 9/11.

Similarly 3 deaths and 150 wounded is not comparable to the deaths of thousands of innocents by drone strikes over the last 5 years.

Fire away, but it is true.

PRE-STRAWMAN SHIELD: I am NOT defending the killing of anyone. However I AM trying to counter the message being sent be some that the deaths of a few Americans is somehow a "far greater" crime than the deaths of them other folk --and no, claims of accidents or lack of intention does not excuse it once you KNOW that you are and will be continuing to cause those deaths. That's simply called not giving a shit.

[Cali_Democrat]

1. Dont be surprised if we bomb Iran if the perp turns out to be Muslim

It doesn't have to make sense. We attacked Iraq after 9/11 even though it was perpetrated by Saudis.

If the perp turns out to be from a country like Tunisia, there will be calls to defend American freedumb from the Iranian threat.

[arely staircase]

2. why do you need to compare anyone's death with another?

eom

[Bonobo]

3. The only thing I NEED to do is...

die and pay my taxes.

The rest I do cause I want to.

[arely staircase]

9. nice

I will just continue to pray for the families of the dead and maimed and the people still fighting for their lives in Boston tonight.

[Bonobo]

11. Nothin wrong with that.

I don't believe in God, so I won't.

But I will continue to wish that the US would stop committing violence all over the world because any numbskull knows that only results in becoming the victim of violence.

I do believe in the true understanding of karma. That good actions lead to good results and the reverse.

[The CCC]

28. why do you need to compare anyone's death with another?

It's a natural human tendency. The closer we are in relationship the more important it becomes to us.

It's more important to me when someone dies in my country than in any other country.
It's more important to me when someone dies in my state than in any other state.
It is more important to me when someone dies in my county than in any other county.
It is more important to me when someone dies in my city than in any other city.
It is more important to me when someone dies in my neighborhood than in any other neighborhood.
It is more important to me when someone dies in my friendship than in any other friendship.
It is more important to me when someone dies in my family than in any other family.

[redgreenandblue]

4. Some people are just trapped in their little nationalistic bubble.

[DevonRex]

5. So since there are drone strikes the victims here have no right to grieve. got it. nt

[Bonobo]

6. Yeah, that is EXACTLY what I said.

Are you on drugs?

[DevonRex]

10. This guy expressed my feelings quite well:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2682715

[Bonobo]

12. Thanks for the link.

I choose not to follow your little lead though.

You tried with your own response and it was kinda sad.

[DevonRex]

13. Well, since you completely misunderstood Steve's OP

and chose to call him out so rudely and inaccurately, I'm not surprised at the way this conversation has gone. Rude and weird pretty much sums it up (referring to your asking above if I'm on drugs). So, please don't follow my lead. I wouldn't like the notion of you walking behind me, thank you very much.

[Bonobo]

14. Nah, I understood it perfectly.

Better than you, I think.

[sabrina 1]

21. Did someone say that?? Where?

[LittleBlue]

8. K&R

Well said!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

15. It's called "revenge"....

I'm old enough to remember when that wasn't considered to be a virtue.

[Bonobo]

17. Shit, you ARE old!!!

Different world now.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. I know,...I remember when the goal of the US was world peace.

[patrice]

16. "Justify" is YOUR word. Perhaps you're mistaking a broader, more complete, perspective for false

equivalence. Or perhaps you are assuming that the deaths of innocents is insignificant unless you say otherwise.

I don't imagine anyone is telling you that drone deaths have 0 significance. I agree with however horrible you think they are. I just don't think we should be so politically selective about our horror and I think counting things isn't a good way to go about respecting individual people, but, if you insist upon counting, what do you guess the death total is for all of the unregulated AMERICAN assault weapons merchants who have been in business all over the world for so long, for waaaaaay more than 5 years? Have they killed more people than drone programs or less?

I am perfectly willing to support all of this anger about drones, if we could be more honest about all of the other deaths that are a part of that whole dynamic. Freelance killing is just as hideous as programed killing and quantities are a secondary trait of that horror, not an essential trait of it. Being as selective as some people are looks as though there is something else that is really more important than the deaths of innocents by drone and I refuse to use those innocents for political motives like that.

Do you really refuse to agree that freelance killing by means of assault weapons is just as evil as programmed killing by drones?

[Bonobo]

20. I didn't mean to single out drones.

It just happens to be that THAT is what is happening now.

And so, it is the thing that has the most importance at this moment.

It is the thing that we should be stopping. We as Democrats because if not us, who?

No one apparently.

[patrice]

26. It's all one thing: We have the most prolific PRIVATE arms merchants on Earth. We refuse to

cooperate with the U.N. because it is corrupt (which it is true to a certain extent but we can't do anything about that if we're too authoritarian and stand-offish with them), because the U.N. is fucked up, there is no one to get some leverage on the activities of the IMF, the IMF functions primarily under the principles of Disaster Capitalism everywhere, Disaster Capitalism creates fertile conditions for our arms merchants, freelancers armed with assault weapons, supplied by our manufacturers, cause instabilities (possibly in places soon to experience severe increases in, already serious, drought, btw), which instabilities trigger regional pressure for drone programs, "lather, rinse, repeat". It's circular and acting against only one element will leave the others to just fester.

[patrice]

19. What are your thoughts about U.S. participation in U.N. assault weapons control treaties? nt

[Bonobo]

22. My opinion is that I need to learn more about it before I can state my thoughts. nt

[patrice]

25. What would you require of such a treaty to end uncontrolled assault weapons trade in order to

agree to U.S. participation in it?

Just hypothetically, what would your specifications be?

[Bucky]

23. Whoever does it, killing does not rectify other deaths.

[caseymoz]

24. Wait. First, these people could be anybody

Last I looked, there were no leads. Al Qaida said, it ain't us. (Or the Arabic equivalent).

This could be domestic terrorists. Since there was apparently a program to assassinate certain prosecutors and a head of Colorado Department of Corrections, and since this took place on Tax Day and Patriot Day, I think any discussions about foreign terrorists doing this are premature. We should wait on discussion until they actually make an arrest.

Drone strikes are a different topic. We need to stop them regardless of the dead in this bombing.

[RudynJack]

27. why try to make any equivalency?

how foolish.