If someone was a violent man from a violent family and murdered your son or daughter... [View all]

[Locut0s]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by REP (a host of the General Discussion forum).

Let's say for the sake of argument that we have a violent man from a violent family. Further more he's from a very poor family that lives in a ghetto neighbourhood. Nearby is a very rich neighbourhood. There is a lot of tension between these two communities, the rich don't like the poor and feel uncomfortable living next to a high crime neighbourhood. Similarly the poor feel used and looked down upon by the rich. One day the man walks into the rich neighbourhood and happens across a teenager playing basketball, a fight ensues and the poor man murders the teenager in cold blood.

Given the scenario above would the following response be justified?

The family of the rich man go into the poor neighbourhood and kills the man responsible for the murder of their son. However they also kill the mans wife, his mother, his father, and his children. Further they set their house on fire and those of several near by homes, killing some of their occupants as well.

I think most people would argue that the family DOES have a right to protect themselves and seek out justice for the murder of their son. But I think most people would say that the response in this case is as bad or worse than the initial crime, that they really only had the right to go after the initial murderer.

If most people feel this way about this scenario why do so many feel so different about what Israel is doing in the middle east? (I'm not arguing that many here on DU do, but outside here many do).

I realize the situation is MUCH more complex than this. But still I think the analogy still holds some water. There are no third party "police" that can be turned to like they can in the scenario I outlined. I also realize that they aren't just killing civilians but ARE targeting militants. The 'targeting' though is so crude that it seems little different at times.