Is it really? The possibility of Islamic terrorists wreaking havoc on you and your family is that far-fetched is it? I'd have agreed with you 10 or 15 years ago. Not anymore. You know, of course, where the world's largest Muslim nation is located don't you? Right across the Torres Straits. 200 million of them. They're not all terrorists, to be sure. But after Bali, you wouldn't bet against Centrepoint or the Harbor Bridge turning into a pile of ashes, would you? Perhaps not today or tomorrow, but it's no longer unthinkable is it? Still, it's a useful literay device to summararily dismiss me.
All hypotheticals are contrived. By definition. That doesn't mean they don't convey a truism. And thanks for doing exactly what I wrote about in my previous post. Lumping people who are not 100% in agreement with you, into a category of "advocating" what Perry is alleged to have done. You forgot that word.
I don't think what Perry "did" was right. What I'm trying to do is place his alleged actions and your indignant criticism of it into context.
Where do Perry's actions fit in the spectrum of wartime "crimes"? Compared with suicide bombings, say? How about the dropping of bombs on cities of civilians? We did it twice in Japan, at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. How does cutting the finger off a dead person compare to cutting it off a living person? Does the corpse feel pain?
Traditionally, war is fought according to rules. Two armies face each other. Prisoners are taken. The dead are buried. We have the Geneva Convention. The war on terror, on the other hand, is a new entity. What are the rules for this campaign? The enemy hides among us and kills women and children.
Which brings me back to my example. When your own forbearance is tested by the personal experience of Islamic terror, your message of moral rectitude will receive a better reception. It requires extraordinary discipline and self-control to play by the rules when the enemy does not. That doesn't mean that it's OK to break them. It means that those who are in the frontline of this war will fall prey to their human failings.
Self-righteous condemantion, delivered from afar rings hollow.
No, it's not unthinkable.
But I am not going to let a theoretical decide the way I conduct myself. For starters, unlike yourself, I wouldn't give the enemy the satisfaction of thinking they had me rattled.
Now just hang on a minute Marshmallow.
Since when is it 'self-righteous' to say something is wrong, by an independent code? I'm not saying, 'I'm perfect', but I know Perry isn't, either. All your talk about relativity, and how it's small on the scale of evil doesn't detract from the fact that interfering with corpses is WRONG.