Terrorists Copy-Cat Minds
by Harold J. Bursztajn, M.D., October 23, 2002
The Washington area sniper terrorist's rationalization and rage at the
police in his letter is typical of terrorists who blame the victims
for defending themselves and than rationalize their murderous acts
as "revenge" for such acts of self-defence. We can see
this when bus riders are murdered in Israel and the Palestinian terrorists
rationalize and ask for world sympathy by claiming that their acts
are justified revenge for imperfect Israeli self-defence efforts.
It thus comes as no surprise that when a bus driver is murdered by
a terrorist in Maryland, a letter accompanies which rationalizes
the murder by blaming imperfect police efforts.
What we are dealing with worldwide, whether in the United States, Indonesia,
or Israel is a "cycle of terrorism and rationalization" where
accepting international terrorists' rationalizations encourages domestic
terrorism. Terrorists and wanna be terrorists watch our reaction;
and the more we accept the rationalizations of the Sadam Hussein's,
Hammas', Jihad's, etc. about the righteousness of their acts, the
more we morally equivocate by lumping terrorism and self defense
under the catch all phrase of a "cycle of violence", the
more we displace our outrage into overblown calls for restraint on
the part of international terrorism's victims, the more we provide
ammunition for domestic "me too" and "wanna be" copy-cat
terrorists.
