If I may make a serious post to my fellow Getbiggers, it is to first say that if I could spend my life doing nothing but killing religious extremists, I would. Nothing would bring me more pleasure than to put a bullet into the head of every single man who would target innocent women, children, and animals.
I've not seen footage of the attacks, but assuming the content that's being described is true, it is my sincere wish that every single person responsible for the targeting of those civilians is wiped off the face of the Earth.
It is worth mentioning now that one can despise Islamic extremists with every ounce of breath in one's body, and likewise feel nothing but utter contempt for what the Israeli state has done to the people of Palestine. That's certainly how I feel. The right to be free in one's own land is either universally valid or it is not valid at all.
"The first casualty when war comes is truth" is a platitude, though no less true for being one. And in the coming days and weeks we will no doubt be bombarded with propaganda from all sides. Think for yourself and examine the sources.
I have stayed in the most religiously conservative places on the planet, sometimes alone, and with Salafists in the same area broadcasting from the mosque that I was there to corrupt their women (I may have corrupted a few, but that was a lucky guess on their part, lol). What I can say for sure, though, is that 90% of the people around me were as far removed from these extremists as you and I. I met some of the most open, funny, and loving people I've ever known in some of these countries. Do not let the actions of extremists force you to view the world as they do.
The few million people in Gaza being bombed now are not responsible for the crimes of Hamas. Just as the innocent victims murdered by their hand were not responsible for the crimes of the Israeli government.
The blind hatred and brutality that we see being delivered to civilians on both sides here is a tragically ubiquitous aspect of our human nature that emerges in every conflict. We saw it in Nanking, in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, in Rwanda, in Vietnam, in Algeria, in Sri Lanka, in Ukraine, and countless other examples. Nobody is immune from the corrosive effects of war on their moral faculties. Believe me, we—the UK, US, and Australia—intentionally targeted our own fair share of innocent civilians in recent wars.
The conflict in Israel and Palestine is a long a tragic one that only serves to show that violence begets violence. My thoughts are with every innocent family involved.
