Pragmatism or Idealism: Fanatics of Death

I am always disappointed when I hear President Bush speak of complex international affairs in crude and mundane terms. Bush speaks of a black and white world, in which there is no room for nuances or subtleties.

In his worldview, the U.S. is engaged in a battle between "good and evil" and if "you are not with us, you are against us." Bush also maintains that "evildoers" attack America because "they hate our freedoms." Such moralistic dichotomies preclude any serious analysis of intricate issues and they tend to irritate people who can see beyond a two-dimensional portrayal of life.

But I must admit that Bush is not entirely wrong. He is right when he says that there is evil in this world. And he is also right when he says that we must fight against it. The past week was a sad reminder of the destructive forces of human perversion when car bombs exploded outside two synagogues in Istanbul, killing as many as 23 people.

With all the endless news about suicide bombings in the Middle East and escalating guerrilla warfare in Iraq you would think that another terrorist attack should come as no surprise. But when I read the news about this particular attack I was honestly shocked. Here you have totally innocent civilians who gathered to celebrate and to worship only to be executed by fanatics whose sickening disregard for human life makes them subhuman.

Blinded by irrational hatred, these two men decided that killing innocent Turkish Jews was an appropriate way to make a statement. They were willing to kill themselves as well as other Muslims -- the majority of the dead were actually Muslim shopkeepers and guards -- to achieve their sadistic goal.

I ignore what pseudo strategic thinking went behind these attacks. I am sure Middle East experts will come up with conceivable motivations, such as Turkey's close relationship with Israel, or the war in Iraq. But the reasons are not as important as the grief of the victims' families. No reason can ever justify the horror inflicted by these fanatics of death. To me, these terrorist attacks just looked like random acts of madness. And I guess that is what they always are. Their only intention is to instigate fear by murdering innocent human beings. If that is not evil, I don't what is.

When President Bush says that we are fighting against evil he is not wrong.

I always hesitate to use absolute terms when writing about politics. There are always two sides to a story because, in the end, everything is about perception. But relativism stops when innocent lives are lost. To me, the murdering of innocent human beings for whatever purposes is an absolute evil. How you fight against that evil is another story, and I disagree with the way the Bush administration is approaching this issue. But the fact remains that there are groups of people like Al-Quaeda who have declared a war, not against Jews or against America, but against humanity.

To be sure, Al-Qaeda and their despicable affiliated groups are not the only "evildoers" in this world. One cannot condemn suicide bombings in Iraq without equally condemning indiscriminate U.S. bombing in that country. One cannot denounce terrorism in Israel without at least trying to understand the conditions that led to it. If we are to be coherent, our definition of terrorism must be broad, encompassing all sorts of violence against innocent civilians. But that does not mean we have to justify terrorism. Doing so would be to betray mankind.

Recognizing the relativity of terrorist violence is important, but it makes us lose sight of the real tragedy of human loss. Beyond our calculations of what is right and what is wrong, beyond our understanding of the causes and roots of political upheaval, one ideal should always prevail among any other consideration: the respect for human life.

Rodrigo de Haro is a senior majoring in International Relations. He can be reached at deharo@tuftsdaily.com.