Iraqi jihad update from AP:
WASHINGTON - An American who was among four Christian activists kidnapped last year in Iraq has been killed, a State Department spokesman said Friday.The FBI verified that a body found in Iraq Friday morning was that of Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., spokesman Noel Clay said. He said he had no information on the other three hostages.
Clay said he did not know how Fox was killed but said additional forensics will be done in the United States. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad is investigating, he said.
Fox's family has been notified, Clay said, and "our heartfelt condolences go out to them."
"The State Department continues to call for the unconditional release of all other hostages" in Iraq, the spokesman said.
Thoughts and prayers go out to his family, and to those of the 3 remaining hostages.
I remember a quote from a comedian, maybe Dennis Miller, that went something like this.
"It doesn't matter that you are against the war. They still want to want to kill you; you are an infidel."
It would be funny if it didn't ring so true.
I offer my heartfelt condolences and sincere sympathy for Mr. Fox's family. My hopes and prayers continue for the release of the remaining hostages.
Our condolences and prayers to this family in grief and we pray to God for the safe release for the others still held hostage.
The Texican.
A few days ago they show 3 of the 4 hostages, Fox of course was not among them....how many members of the site believed as I did at the time, Tom Fox was already dead.(or marked for death) This peaceful religion is really racking up a body-count this year, I'm glad I don't live in Eurabia, you poor folks are really on the point of the 'sword of Islam'. Over here in the land of the 'Great Satan' it's all business as usual, an attractive co-ed(preferably white and blond) goes missing or gets raped/murdered....no doubt a tragic event, but she's the 'national dead girl of the month' and Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS, Bill O'reilly etc...spend the next month putting the rest of the country to sleep over what her neighbors dog had for breakfast on the day she went missing. Blah Blah Blah. The Iranian punk who drove a rented SUV into a crowd did'nt even make the papers in New Jersey....not one word. This is the real problem in the west as I see it, maybe another 9/11(god forbid) will make us stand up and start fighting. I tell you this, if they riot over here the police are going to have more help than they can handle.....promise, Wait...This just in a little blonde girl is trapped in a well...details at 11.
However naive and misguided this Christian group was to go to Iraq, probably without proper protection, I feel horrible for Mr. Fox. No American should have to step foot in that hell hole except for our amb. That's it. This guy was middle aged, looked out of shape and was killed because of his US passport. It's so patently obvious that this misguided chap and his group were there trying(in a deluded manner)to help. What a joke. Kind of like the idea that as we stand down, they'll stand up, or Islam is a ROP.
Bad news, I pray for peace for his family as well.
Sorry to break the consensus here, but I got no sympathy at all. It is not only that this guy and his pals stuck their heads in the tiger's mouth, but that they did so in order to prove that the tiger was really a harmless domestic kitten and that all those who insist on treating it as a tiger are nasty, imperialist warmongers in bad faith. Their "Christianity" is of the holier-than-thou variety, the kind that goes around talking of George W.Bush as a Nazi and of Guantanamo as a death camp. They are unwilling to listen to others, they learn nothing, and they forget nothing. They were, in short, a bunch of self-righteous, prattling idiots, of a kind all too prevalent in the West today, and the worst possible danger to our effort to contain and break down jihad. They are the kind who promote boycotts against Israel and fawn on Cindy Sheehan. If one of them dies, it is as the victim of his own obstinate, self-righteous stupidity. And if it serves to convince a few of his comrades that we live in a real world and that tigers really are tigers, it may even turn out to be useful. But I do not believe that will happen. I will bet any JW member anything you want that within twenty-four hours we will have their first public statement blaming Bush'n'Blair for his death, and that within forty-eight hours that view will be orthodoxy and set in stone; because these people deal in unmovable certainties, not in real life.
I will bet any JW member anything you want that within twenty-four hours we will have their first public statement blaming Bush'n'Blair for his death, and that within forty-eight hours that view will be orthodoxy and set in stone; because these people deal in unmovable certainties, not in real life.
Posted by: Paolo at March 11, 2006 02:16 AM
I partially agree with Paulo he may not deserve our sympathy but he deserves some recognition for the role he has played in the confrontation. He is a casualty of war!
This outcome is not a shock, those that know the Mohammedans knew this would be inevitable, let’s see the murder footage so everyone can look into the face of the monster. The 5th column will try and deflect attention from the perpetrators in our midsts, but we must not yield to their demands.
To other pacifists thinking of going and intervening learn from this lesson, the forces you deal with here are not open to reason; they do not see the world you see.
My thoughts are with his family and friends.
I'm not going to lose sleep over the death of Tom Fox either. He was a traitor who gave aid and comfort to enemies of the United States and this is how those enemies thanked him. Let his death be a lesson to future useful idiots.
There was peace activist from the UK - who took her parents to Palestine and they all were kidnapped.
When she was freed - she said something to the effect - not only did I risk my own life - but I endangered the life of others.
Reality
Some people want to hold on stubbornly to their ideas – that we could have a discussion and everything will be alright.
The idea that they will attack you because you are a non-Muslim - is a foreign concept to many people who live in the ‘free’ west.
These people really don’t care what you may or may not think about George Bush. And at least in the west you are allowed to say what you think. But we are dealing with a group of people who really don’t want to understand this.
This is the worst kind of example ~
I am truly sorry to hear this news.
The "Swords of Righteousness" claims responsibility. Killing Quakers! It is unfathomable the abominations these Moslems are capable of. Infidels of the world unite! Rabbi Kahane was right. They must go. Make a worldwide separation wall. Fence out Moslems until they convert to something else, anything else!
I am with Paolo here. I sympathize with his family's loss, but HE died of stupidity.
And another thought ...
Would he have approved of a military rescue operation?
For that matter, would I have approved? Yes. Any chance to kill kidnappers is worth taking.
jay stevens
U.S. Army, ret.
He placed himself in harms way.Sadly,he paid the price. Remember the want to kill all non believers.
Ignorance got Tom Fox killed! His kindness got him into trouble! He was fooled by America’s media to help Iraqi people. His effort was in vain! Now his college-aged daughters lost their father and are confused. When do Christians wake up to realize America is at war with Arabs and Muslims?
Dalai Lama is right -- Don't "attach" to a religion so much that you lose touch with reality.
The mistake can cost you your life at WWIII.
Lots of people put themselves in harms way for an ideal or principal. In Iraq coalition soldiers, mostly Americans are putting are putting themselves in harms way when they patrol or fight in dangerous neighborhoods, the ideal is peace, freedom and security.. Policemen put themselves in harms way every day the ideal is law and order. Firemen are in plenty of danger...do we call all these people stupid? They all had ideals also. Or is the complaint that if your ideal is a religious ideal, dont act on it because it will make you stupid, and endanger your life?
Jesus put himself in harms way for an ideal and got crucified for his efforts. Do we call him stupid? I guess it just boils down to 'one mans hero is another mans jackass.'
And howcumzit there is little mention of the brutes who killed Tom. It would seem they deserve a little castigation themselves.
Roxane. I am with you, just want to elaborate a bit more. He is a traitor and not only to his country, but also to his family. I can not except his actions because of naivety or out of a “kindness”. All the information he needed is available. Other people were killed before him. No sympathy at all for traitors, especially stupid ones. As for his family, they will probably be better off without an idiot as the head.
Duh_swanmi,
A jackass can be a hero only to another jackass.
Duh_swanmi,
A jackass can be a hero only to another jackass.
Posted by Pong.
Thats so profound I wont comment on it.I can tell you put a lot of thought into that...have a good day...
--Sorry to break the consensus here, but I got no sympathy at all. It is not only that this guy and his pals stuck their heads in the tiger's mouth, but that they did so in order to prove that the tiger was really a harmless domestic kitten and that all those who insist on treating it as a tiger are nasty, imperialist warmongers in bad faith. Their "Christianity" is of the holier-than-thou variety, the kind that goes around talking of George W.Bush as a Nazi and of Guantanamo as a death camp
--posted by Paulo
This observation is dead on, pun intended. These self righteous Christians, who have little comprehension of the influence of history or geopolitics, and cannot even begin to fathom the centrality of the jihad for Muslims, have some twisted need to assert their moral superiority over others as a way to vindicate their faith. I have had many arguments with these types and have probed their psychology; most are incapable of an evidence based and reasonable analysis of world events. These people literally believe that their pathologically anti semetic and anti Americanism is a reflection of Gods will, and that they have a religious duty to actively oppose Israeli and U.S. policies. In their twisted view the deliberate murder of innocents by those primitive Muslims is an understandable reaction to oppression, while an coalition assault on Falluga, where a few civilians are killed accidentally, constitutes a verification of their facile view of the evil of the U.S. and Israel.
As far as I am concerned these people are just as mush a threat to the West as their de facto jihadist allies. Hopefully, the other two Canadians and one Britain "peace makers" will be found dead too. Otherwise, their rabid anti semitism and anti-Americanism will be used as a insurance policy for future useful idiots
According to CNN:
It also says that he was tortured (details of jihadi torture have leaked out before, and its not like accidentally-splashing-water-on-a-Qur'an type of torture, it's more like drilling holes into their head, gouging out their eyes, etc. etc.) before he was shot. I wonder if he had any change of heart about who was being dehumanized in this conflict before he was executed?
To all those who have blamed "Christians" as such for the actions of Tom Fox and his colleagues, I am a Christian too. And I am willing to bet that if he and I were examined on the content of the Nicene Creed, I would turn out to accept it all, and he would not. These people usually have less of Christianity than of whatever political nostrum they cultivate, and use our religion as a justification. Which is another reason why I have no sympathy - where was their sympathy with the persecuted Christians of the Arab world?
special_guest, don't you see? No amount of torture would have changed his mind. The very fact that they are inhuman would prove to him that they were dehumanized - three guesses as to who by.
What Paolo said!!!!!
(Far more eloquently than I ever could have)
duh_swami,
OK. Let's see if I can illustrate the difference between people in military service, law enforcement, and public safety (firemen for example) and people like Tom Fox.
The following is from an essay (that I did not write) at http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000129.html
"Lt. Colonel Grossman, a far better man than me, a man who does things I only talk about, writes in his introduction to The Bulletproof Mind:
One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me: "Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident."
...
Thus there is a paradox, and we must grasp both ends of the situation: We may well be in the most violent times in history, but violence is still remarkably rare. This is because most citizens are kind, decent people who are not capable of hurting each other, except by accident or under extreme provocation. They are sheep.
I mean nothing negative by calling them sheep. To me it is like the pretty, blue robin's egg. Inside it is soft and gooey but someday it will grow into something wonderful. But the egg cannot survive without its hard blue shell. Police officers, soldiers and other warriors are like that shell, and someday the civilization they protect will grow into something wonderful. For now, though, they need warriors to protect them from the predators.
"Then there are the wolves," the old war veteran said, "and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy." Do you believe there are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial.
"Then there are sheepdogs," he went on, "and I'm a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf." Or, as a sign in one California law enforcement agency put it, "We intimidate those who intimidate others."
If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath--a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? Then you are a sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed."
Back to me:
Our society seems think that pacifists live on a higher moral plane. I see their hypocrisy: "Ooh. I am too good to resort to violence. I'll let what's-his-name over there bloody HIS hands to protect me."
Tom Fox was a sheep who deliberately chose to go out into the middle of a wolfpack. That IS stupid. If that is too blunt, change that to: "He displayed poor judgement and an excessively inadequate skill of threat assessment."
As far as the people who killed Tom Fox are concerned, they are Muslims emulating Mohammed. That's what they do.
If he was a Christian, then his attacker may have just made a footstool.
Here's a fascinating quote I found at the Belmont Club regarding a recent commentary by Mr. Fox's Christian organization regarding the cartoon capers:
"We, the members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq, are disturbed by anti-Muslim cartoons from twelve different artists published in September by Denmark's daily paper the Jyllands-Posten. The publisher claims the freedom of speech to publish the cartoons, but we believe they are only spreading hate and bigotry. To those who believe and act as if terrorism is an essential part of the Islamic faith, we say No! Stop! We cannot stand by and remain silent when our gracious Muslim brothers and sisters are being defamed."
So, perhaps he went to point the finger for all the Muslim atrocities in Iraq and all around the world and to blame America and her military -- I seem to remember reading about this groups "mission" when they went, and then again when they were nabbed... It was an anti-American pro "resistance" mission.
Any way, there he goes with several others to the war zone -- to show solidarity with his "gracious Muslim brothers and sisters"... And what happened next? He got kidnapped, tortured, and then a bullet through the head. Good gracious, Muslims! Gracious indeed.
I suspect his Christ would have pitied him for being so misguided and insane, but I wouldn't presume to know.
(link: http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com )
( I guess the grovelling just didn't quite convince 'em, huh? )
I know these activists think of themselves as Christians (my far lefty sister, whom I have mentioned before at this site is an ex-Catholic, practicing Quaker - and all of Paolo's comments re the psychology of these folks are right on and totally applicable to her as well)- but these folks seem to have completely overlooked a central message of Christianity, namely, that EVIL really and truly does exist.
Having been raised a Catholic myself I admit to still finding that statement somewhat puzzling. "Evil exists". I admit I'm still trying to figure out what it means. Maybe many people are.
My take on it is not that there is this "free-floating" evil that attaches to people in some abstract way. But I think it reasonable to propose that some IDEAS are thoroughly evil and that individual people can become infected by EVIL when they adopt those EVIL ideas.
But denial of this fact seems to lie at the heart of the "lefty" Christian view of the Muslim problem. They refuse to acknowledge that Muslims have been infected by an EVIL IDEA (an IDEOLOGY) and that these evil ideas are guiding their actions. Instead they cling to a "therapism" view of human evil, which basically denies evil because they view the problem entirely in terms of "root causes", "political oppression" and so on and they want to practice therapeutic understanding of hurts and wounds and blows to self-esteem and so on in order to solve the problem. But none of those "root causes" hold water when one looks around the world and sees people everywhere living in poverty and under oppression but are people who would never in a million years torture and then murder an innocent Quaker advocate of "peace". And when one combines that observation with the by now incontrovertible evidence that Muslim jihadis are NOT poor and disadvantaged people but on the contrary are usually among the most educated members of their societies (often having had the benefit of an expensive western education to boot), well, then, the "therapism" argument is clearly false.
Lefty Christians need to reaquaint themselves with the very real problem of EVIL. Not some sort of evil that one is born with. No. Rather the kind of evil which is transmitted in the form of an evil IDEOLOGY, that literally takes over the human psyche and human soul and turns one into a killing machine. People like Tom Fox, and sadly my sister as well, are still in total denial about this.
Great points aout evil Caroline! Now that you point it out -- it seems glaringly obvious. Still, look at the way they refer to the cartoons spreading "hate and bigotry" and "defaming" Islam -- They seem to still have a sense (twisted and misplaced) of nastiness...
Once again we see a pathological type of self loathing which is determined to smear 'our side' (for lack of a better term) for all perceived transgressions (i.e. Iraq war, Afghanistan war, publishing cartoons) and wilfully ignore, or worse, blame us for the atrocities of the Muslims. It never enters their minds that Muslims may be acting purely volitionally -- or that the motivations for their heinous atrocities might be found in the Koran (9/11, Arab bigotry and hatred, violent Jihad... etc)
In a way they betray a certain arrogance and cultural chauvenism since we are somehow to blame, that our actions are primary, and that the Muslims and Islam is incidental... They seem so comfortable holding the West to a higher human standard than Muslims and Arabs. If taken to its logical conclusion, doesn't this attitude infantilize Muslims and Arabs -- I would find such patronization deeply offensive -- (I'm not saying I would kill or behead... but then again... some of these people are pretty irritating, huh?
These people (the Howard Deans, the Chomskys, the Michael Moores, the Zapateros, the Tom Foxes, all seem like narcissists.... If you analyze what they say -- it's really all about them in the end... They clearly have zero comprehension about Islam, Arab culture, or their motivations in Iraq... The pretexts for Arab rage are sufficient for them, and somehow dovetail with their malignant projections about what the West is all about...
Despite their supposedly self-less activities -- these messianic dramas are more about such person's exhibitionism than their genuine impetus to help. The same appears to be true for that journalist Jill Carol. She fashions herself the spokesperson for "what's really going on in Iraq from the Iraqis perspective". Is there some kind of instant just add water way to get into the Iraqi's skin for such persons? How would such a thing be possible for privileged white Christians to step into a medieval nightmare, and then be able to miraculously "tell it from the Iraqi perspective"? These persons are arrogant beyond belief.
They also appear so obsessed with disproving their poisonous projections about themselves and the West, that they have lost hold on reality. Iraqis only are props for their own personal psychodramas....
Their romantic musings sure were off about those "gracious Muslim brothers and sisters" who kidnapped and then killed one of them so far..
(I don't mean to be hideous - but there's something darkly humorous about the irony...)
Whatever happened to that female US reporter who was kidnapped in Iraq about a month ago ? ( or longer)
She was sympathetic to Iraqis but the last video message released she appeared distressed and less enamoured with the colourful locals she encountered.
Any more news on her fate?
just re-read jsla's ( as usual excellent) post above and I think the reporter I'm referring to may be Jill Carroll.
jsla,
in further agreement to your post does anyone remember the " human sheilds" ? Those westerners
who went to Baghdad in the weeks before the liberation to stand in front of tanks etc. ( none did-they all flew home before the fireworks started but not before hogging the limelight for their 15 minutes )
Some journalists coined the phrases " conspicuous compassion " and " moral vanity" about these twisted personalities and their ilk.
One I remember was a reality television show contestant ( says it all really ). I saw him soonafter in a nightclub ( how kafir ! ) surrounded my admirers. ( got his 72 virgins in this life and didn't even have to blow himself up - he's not stupid obviously )
I was not outspoken enough to confront him and his crowd on this manifestation of his posing, to my shame. I realized I would merely be branded a heretic for not toeing the PC line.
Right on -- protestcat. Jill Carroll is the one... I don't know what happened to her.
[** mean button on **]
I don't know why she's so upset in that video - she got a huge promotion after all: starting out as a terror propagandist, now elevated to a human shield, potential ATM for terrorism, and bargaining chip to be used against the coalition. She also serves as a human lure -- potentially placing US Soldiers in harms way, simply because she placed herself in that situation. I know this sounds like blaming the victim, but given how arduous the pathway is to Iraq -- these people moved heaven and earth to situate themselves exactly where they are... Whether it's thrills, malignancy, insanity, or whatever, zealotry, anti-Americanism, sympathy for the Devil -- all of them went on a zealot missions and found themselves in the maw of hell... My sympathy is nearly dried up for that kind.
[** mean button off **]
Wow -- I just read your post -- Yeah -- I remember all those luv freaks in their zany buses -- I remember one guy camped out in front of an arms depot -- he was pretty nervous, I think it was all sinking in... Baghdad Bob had placed them strategically around all the sites -- he actually took them at face value and said -- 'What the heck -- human shields? For Free!? -- great -- you go here, and you go here, and you..." Anyway, the guy was surrounded with hundreds of Iraqis -- they looked like they had been visited by a martian -- they're all looking at him with this "WTF?" look on their faces... A genuine FREAK!... And it was soooo sweet watching the guy start to sweat...
But sadly they all ran as soon as they discovered they might actually get hurt for their strongly held "convictions"... probably the same ones they lost along with the bowel movement and projectile vomiting when they realized: "Hey -- I might get hurt!"
Reality collided with their fantasies, and reality won.
Rock beats scissors
Scissors beats paper
Reality beats the "conspicuously compassionate" all over the head with a knobby stick...
Nature has her rules...
PS... Sean Penn riding around rescuing New Orleaners also comes to mind... A boat capable of holding 4 persons... There's Sean Penn, a Cameraman to capture the heroics, a guy to operate the motor, and room for one, hopefully not too stinky, not too fat, not too nasty, not to clean-just-in-case-it-all-looks-staged rescuee...
Scene opens -- Katrina ravaged holocaust... Key light on Mr. Penn's pensive concerned slightly righteously disgusted face...
"Come on buddy -- we don't have all day! Can you help that guy into the boat... um Hey! Motor guy -- help him into the boat! Fuck'n A -- do I havta do everything around here?" Says Sean Penn
wet guy (half dead) is dragged into the boat by Motor guy..
"Did you get that on camera?" says Sean Penn
"Sure did!" says the cameraman
"Was it a good take?" says Sean Penn
"Pretty good" says the cameraman
"Great -- we'll fix it in post. Now let's get the fuck out of this shit hole, my jet's all gassed up -- this is costing me a FORTUNE! Move it buddy!" says Sean Penn
(boat motors off -- composite CGI sunset in post production... Camera fades -- The End)
jsla: "Despite their supposedly self-less activities -- these messianic dramas are more about such person's exhibitionism than their genuine impetus to help."
I couldn't agree more. When you read Eastern philosophy you realize that the Ego is an endless trap. It's a very rare human being indeed who manages to escape altogether from the funhouse mirrors. The most obvious first move away from manifest ego-selfishness is into "unselfishness". But then so often the ego becomes entrapped by that self-definition. Now you have the "martyr" - who is every bit as ego-oriented as the more manifestly self-centered person the "martyr" fashioned himself in contrast to. Then, perhaps such a person as the martyr now comes to realize that they are still ruled by the ego. Maybe then they become hopeless and feel like a victim, because there doesn't appear to be any escape. Whoops. Too bad. The "victim" is still trapped in the ego. Sorry! No escape there! Like I said - funhouse mirrors!
And so it goes. But Yes. I do think you are correct in discerning that exhibitionism is an impediment to actually helping. In other words, the greatest capacity to help will follow where the least ego lurks. It doesn't really matter how much one "desires" to help. What does one's "desire" to help have to do with it at all? There is the clear perception that something needs to be done or not. Of course the tricky question is - how do you know if you have the clear perception regarding what needs to be done as opposed to being under the sway of one of the myriad ego-illusion games?
Beats me.:-)
I agree with Paolo. But not with those who say that Fox was stupid. Maybe he was, but he also sympathized with terrorist murderers. So you could that he was killed partly because of his own ideology ["peace"].
Fox and friends believed in the peace that the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel talked about:
Peace, peace, and there is no peace. The false prophets say peace and there is none.
But to call Fox and friends prophets is to flatter them too much. They are part of the problem.
Caroline,
(BTW, thank for the two links you posted for me in the earlier thread - disturbing but, unfortunately, stuff one needs to know.)
I quite agree. One doesn't want to fall into the West-Coast Baby-Boomber trap of dabbling in everything and understanding nothing. And one could, in any case, make the same point by pointing to, say, La Rochefoucauld.
However, while I've no wish to play at Buddhism, I've read about it. I can see they are very much concerned with the ego - not for "moral" reasons but because they wish to escape it as a source of "suffering". It seems that with many many years of meditative practice people can reach a point where the ego simply ceases to matter so much - which would correlate with physical changes in the structure of the brain. For any normal person living and moving in ordinary social contexts, self-interest (emerging in emotional not just other forms) has to be a given.
I've got quite good a quotation on the emotions here:
"Sentimentality" in this sense - it is a word with several meanings - is I believe a malign factor in many political situations. I don't know how it could be broken down. It is, of course, related to an indifference to the empirical detail of any real situation. Perhaps sheer weight of evidence might do something in the long run.
By the way -- I just found a blog that Mr. Fox maintained -- it makes for interesting if not sometimes disturbing reading... Check it out:
http://waitinginthelight.blogspot.com/2005/11/there-are-no-words.html#comments
This case brings up some disturbing questions about people like this who sympathize with killers, and seem to hate those who would fight them... He has the players reversed in his mind -- and perpetrator is always the victim...
I wonder if he would be bothered knowing his killers will kill again? Apparently his organization was in contact with terrorists during their "outreach" project... Did it cross his mind that his death may encourage them to kill more "infidels"? Did he do anything to stop them or report them? In his mind, should he have? If not before his kidnapping, how about afterwards? After being tortured? If he did nothing to stop or report them, would he consider himself complicit in the murders they perpetrate after killing him? Did any of these questions enter his mind?
This man does display a questioning mind on the blog, but he always seemed to be asking the wrong questions, and coming up with the wrong answers.
Apparently, he never wavers in his belief that fighting is never a solution for anything -- ever. Except for fighting American and Jewish soldiers -- his group and he were never conflicted about the rightness of those "fights"...
Such a mind is troubling to contemplate, mainly because there seem to be many kindred spirits in the West. Other potential misunderstanders of reality -- other perpetual askers of the wrong questions, other finders of the wrong answers.
Roxane,
regarding ur post. Tom Fox risked his life to helped those who hated him. Its ignorent for u to say the things you said about him. The simple fact that he made a difference in the peoples lives he touched makes him a greater person then all of us. You sit from your home reading these articles posting you posts with no regard or respect for those who risk everything just to make a difference in 1 persons life. So go on and continue to make insensitive comments, about a selfless man who did nothing but humble himself for the sake of humanity. my prayers are with him and his family.
Jawknee -- I don't want to argue with your sentiments about this man's actions, or the ramifications of his actions or those of the group CPT which he belonged to. But I think there's a certain degree of sanitation going on about Mr. Fox and his pureness of heart in your post -- I also noted on his blog the nearly messianic opinion many posters held for this man -- most spoke of him as a saintly and enlightened man, one whose heart had become so pure out of boundless love -- Yet his writings and his comments are filled with rancor and even sometimes loathing for America, the American Military, Jewish Soldiers and the Israeli Military. How do you square this stark dichotomy with your (and other's) saintly description of him. How do you square the complete lack of censure for the atrocities of those inimical Muslims he supposedly went to "help" in Iraq -- or the unquestioning and altogether uncritical aid his group was willing to lend to Palestinian terrorists at the same time they were engaged in heated excoriations of Israel?
This man's heart wasn't soley a manifestation of saintly pureness , infinite love, and light -- Without judging his sense of devotion or love for those he chose to "help", he seemed to harbor a strong and even perhaps angry enmity towards America and Israel...
And I would also ask: what "difference" did he make in the people's lives he touched by helping "those who hated him"? It's a statement that is hard to swallow, given the facts on the ground regarding his attitudes, and the circumstances of his death.
it didn't take long for this to come out...
http://www.cafepress.com/tshirtdoctor.50658758