Thread: Evil & Reflections on the bombing of the Baghdad pet market

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

In another thread, the subject of good/evil was brought up with some folks coming down on the side of 'it's all subjective'.

Read the piece below and have another 'think' on that, would you?

Ditto the following, taken from an actual news report and not an overly emotional treatise invoking the name of God:

Five soldiers charged in Iraq rape-murder case

(CNN) -- Four U.S. soldiers in Iraq are charged with participation in the "rape and murder of a young Iraqi woman and three members of her family," the U.S. military said Sunday.


A fifth soldier is accused of dereliction of duty for failing to report the offenses.
All five are charged with conspiring with former Pfc. Steven D. Green to commit the crimes, the military said, in connection with the incident in March in Mahmoudiya, Iraq...

... Prosecutors have said Green shot and killed an Iraqi man, woman and child before raping a young female from the same family and killing her.

A Justice Department affidavit says Green and other soldiers planned to rape a young woman who lived near the checkpoint they manned in Mahmoudiya.
The affidavit says three soldiers allegedly accompanied Green into the house, and another soldier was told to monitor the radio while the assault took place.
The affidavit says Green shot the woman's relatives, including a girl of about 5; raped the young woman; then fatally shot her.

Soldiers are quoted in the affidavit as telling investigators that Green and his companions then set the family's house afire, threw an AK-47 rifle used in the killings into a canal and burned their bloodstained clothing...

How do the moral absolutists reconcile this with the notion of pure 'Good and Evil'? Are the actions of these men and others like them 'Good' by virtue of the fact they're fighting on the side of 'Good' (God) against the forces of 'Evil' (Allah)? How does this fit with the notion of determining absolutes of 'Right and Wrong', 'Good and Evil'?

Or is it all a relative, and subjective, moral judgment? Are there in fact shades of grey...

Originally Posted by AntRobertson

How do the moral absolutists reconcile this with the notion of pure 'Good and Evil'? Are the actions of these men and others like them 'Good' by virtue of the fact they're fighting on the side of 'Good' (God) against the forces of 'Evil' (Allah)? How does this fit with the notion of determining absolutes of 'Right and Wrong', 'Good and Evil'?

Or is it all a relative, and subjective, moral judgment? Are there in fact shades of grey...

Bravo from a nation of over 300 million you can find a few examples of aberrant human behavior. Genius!

And you think these aberrations constitute an moral equivalent to evil represented by the Islamic suicide murderer whose policy is to commit atrocities.
Impossible to discuss these things with someone afflicted with such a one dimensional hatred that will equivocate pure evil.