On 14 Aug 2002 at 17:38, Hermit wrote:
>
> [Joe Dees 1] As to what Palestinians seem to be worth to some of their
> relatives: I was incorrect concerning the amount of money Saddam
> Hussein offers the families of Palestinian suicide bombers; it is not
> 50k per, but half as much - 25k per, and this amount was only recently
> increased from 10k per. This of course means that, of the percentage
> of the 70+ Palestinian families of suicide bombers who encouraged
> their relatives (mostly children and young adults) to commit suicide
> bombings, they were doing so in the expectation of receiving only half
> as much from Saddam Hussein. Of course, they also receive aid from
> Hamas and from some Saudi-based Islamic charities.
>
> [Hermit 2] Encourage? For the money? I really pity you.
>
I pity them, and a culture and religious ideology that makes such an
action not only acceptable, but laudable to a majority of the Palestinian
populace.
>
> [Hermit 2] How much money would you have to be offered for you to want
> to persuade your hypothetical children to commit suicide?
>
> [Joe Dees 3] Unlike, apparently, scores of Palestinian parents, no
> amount would suffice.
>
> [Hermit 4] If that is the case, why do you assume that this is the
> case for Palestinians?
>
Facts, evidence and recent history. It seems that since the Israelis
have threatened expulsions of West Bank families of the suicide
bombers to Gaza (away from their families, communities and friends)
and begun bulldozing their homes, that the economic incentives for
urging such actions upon their children are less economically and
socially attractive to them, and there has been a marked decrease in
the suicide bombing rate since.
>
> [Joe Dees 5] When economics and ideology unite, a noxious combination
> is produced.
>
> [Hermit 6] So Joe, what combination of ideology and economics would it
> take to persuade you to send your hypothetical children off to commit
> suicide?
>
Having not been raised in that ideology, the actions of these parents
towards their own children, profit or no, is incomprehensible to me, but
nevertheless obviously present. Of course, in a culture that allows four
wives and does not prectice birth control, there will be a surfeit of
children, and with so many per household, perhaps the sacrifice of a
single child here and there, as a small percentage of the household's
children, is looked upon as an acceptable loss, when balanced against
the good that the money and aid subsequently received could provide
for those remaining. And they can always make more. Since those
dead children are, after all, according to that noxious ideology,
Paradise-bound martyrs, the parents can perhaps rationalize the action
as beneficial compassionate and merciful to all, and the sacrifice of the
future martyr's earthly span in this vale of tears as a reasonable and
expendable one to make that span easier for those (s)he leaves behind
in it.
>
> ----
> This message was posted by Hermit to the Virus 2002 board on Church of
> Virus BBS.
> <http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/index.php?board=51;action=display;thread
> id=26096>
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