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.