Later That Same Day

I just had what could almost be called a political argument with my wife. It wasn't an argument, but it could have been.

What happened was this. I was reading the New York Times article about that fellow who tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square. Oh, this is nice, I said sarcastically. This guy apparently told people that he recognized that Islam prohibits the killing of innocents, but he came to the conclusion that in this case it was okay to do it anyway. Gee, I mused, would it be okay then if we were to say that decency prohibits us from, say, bombing Pakistan back to the stone age, but in this case it would be okay? She looked at me. You know that's not right, she said. Are you saying that because they're wrong, that excuses us doing exactly the same thing? No, I replied, just saying that I'm getting damned tired of individuals deciding that their view of the world allows them to slaughter our people. We've got the power to smash that hotbed of radicalism, and sometimes I wonder why we don't just stomp them all the hell out. The right thing is what we're doing, she continued; Selectively targeting those who promote that attitude of terrorism. Yeah, I said. And kill just one person that they didn't like having killed, and suddenly it's okay for them to blow up whatever they want. It's okay for them, but not for us? Exactly, she said.

I know she's right, but still.... The moral high ground can be a bleak and rocky place, can't it?