(December 20, 2013 at 4:17 pm)A Theist Wrote: 911 changed a lot of things for America. Terrorists have declared a jihad against the United States, against Israel, and against the West. We in turn declared war against Terrorist forces. We're in a state of war. Innocent lives are lost in the crossfire but we're not "willingly" taking those innocent lives as you claim. Imagine if you lost your family in a terrorist attack because we didn't weigh the hypothetical against the consequences. Could your conscience let you live with that?
Your problem is that you're trying to justify the killing of innocents with the creation of a false dichotomy. The issue isn't either kill terrorists with drone strikes even though we are well aware that innocents are easily killed in the process, or allow things like 9/11 to happen. Yes, we should be vigilant against those that wish to harm us, but if we allow ourselves to justify the taking of innocent lives in the process, we become no better than those we seek to protect ourselves against.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
