State Terrorism v. Vigilante Terrorism

Here are some insightful thoughts from a good friend of mine who is a first year law student. We expect to hear more great things from him in the future, insha'llah:

The Moral Culpability of State Terrorism v. Vigilante Terrorism on the Basis of Mens Rea Intent:

"I find it interesting that many "conservatives" are keen to prosecute and punish domestic and international capital offenders (many of whom happen to be people of color) by adopting relatively inflexible (albeit fair) mens rea conditions. However, when defending abusive state authority suddenly the most lenient and accommodating mens rea standards are applied to government officials and their henchmen. These right-wing sycophants desperately seek to discover the "humanitarian motives" of their government officials by seeking to ascertain their "intent", which is presumably lodged in the deepest recesses of their sub-conscious. Why the double standard? Why is every conceivable excuse and "defense" put forward by commissars defending abusive state authority and virtually no excuse or defense put forward for alleged capital offenders who are being tried by the State, most of whom happen to be black? This sort of racist bigotry, jingoism and hypocrisy should be exposed for what it is. As a general rule I believe the following elementary moral truism ought to be universally applied to individuals and state governments: One assumes moral/legal responsibility for the actual and foreseeable consequences of his or her actions. An American/Israeli/Pakistani/Russian/Syrian jet bomber that fires missiles into a densely populated refugee camp ought to be held responsible for the murder of any "non-combatants" killed even if the "intent" was only to kill an eighty year old paraplegic terrorist leader. Collateral damage is merely a euphemism for reckless murder, notwithstanding the free-thinking mental acrobatics and philosophical gymnastics of the Alan Dershowtiz's of the world. I plan to adduce massive amounts of evidence to expose this sort of criminal sophistry."

Criminal sophistry indeed. As long as the innocent people doing the dying have been sufficiently dehumanized by the mass media, then killing them seems to be no big deal to most Americans. Speaking of "mental acrobatics", "philosophical gymnastics" and Alan Dershowtiz, please take the time to read the THE DERSHOWITZ HOAX. Even though I was already aware of many of the antics of Alan Dershowitz, I was rather surprised how slimy he really is and how low he would stoop. In this collection of articles, Norman Finkelstein completely dismantles Dershowitz and exposes him as the plagiarist that he is.