Am I kind of wrong for feeling sorry for the undie bomber?

[TheBigotBasher]

To me this is a boy who had far too much testosterone, a not untypical angry student, except he took things way too far and way too stupidly.

He ran Anti War groups with people who now disown him, including politicians known internationally for very obvious reasons, such as George Galloway.

He most certainly got in with the wrong people, in great probability fueled by his youth.

He is in his early 20s, facing the rest of his life in a top security prison because he was stupid.

I just can not imagine being him, when his testosterone calms down to normal levels and he wakes up out of this rage and finally gets what the fuck has he done. Especially when he looks at a prison sentence that will not be over even after he is dead.

[virgogal]

1. No, Your feelings are your feelings. I don't feel sorry for him though.

[TheBigotBasher]

4. I hope you can understand what I am saying though.

His stupidity means that there is no way out for him. None. He will face a prison sentence that only American and China can serve, 130 years or something like that. All for young student rage gone way too far.

I do not feel sorry for him per-se but I do feel sorry for the waste of talent and the waste of opportunity that he himself caused.

[dkf]

2. He had the same motivations as the Jordanian double agent.

Do you feel sorry for him?

[Ozymanithrax]

3. It is not testosterone that drives him to attempt to murder several hundred people...

so he can find God.

I think we should all pity him. But he should still stand trial and, if convicted, serve the maximum sentence under the law.

He made his choice and choices have consequences.

[madokie]

6. he is a week mind and was taken advantage of

he should spend the rest of his life locked up because he will always be a threat. imho

[TheBigotBasher]

7. That is the point.

Once his mind does grow stronger, imagine waking up to that.

I see no mitigating circumstances for him. I can see no argument that he will never be a danger; I just can not imagine the major wtf moment when he finally understands he will face life in probably the hardest prison for the rest of his life.

[Ozymanithrax]

9. If he understood the consequences of his actions, then his mind is strong enough...

to spend the rest of his life in his body in a maximum security prison utilizing socialist health care.

A lot of people have weak minds. That is why Chocolate Ice cream and pot sell so well.

[varelse]

5. I do feel sorry for him

As another poster has already said, your feelings are just that - your feelings. No one else is required to share or approve them.

[TheBigotBasher]

10. I do not require anyone to share my feelings.

I;m just saddened by the waste of what could have been a talented life.

If the authorities could find those behind this then so much the better, but they will not and everone will have their just deserved red meat.

[TheBigotBasher]

11. I do not require anyone to share my feelings.

I;m just saddened by the waste of what could have been a talented life.

If the authorities could find those behind this then so much the better, but they will not and everone will have their just deserved red meat.

[ProudObamanaut]

18. Another viewpoint......

In a way this makes sense. How can we hold this poor young man innocent for actions that a group of extremists brainwashed him into taking?? If he was convinced to carry out these terrible actions then why can't we take a few years and convince him to spend his time doing good for the world?

[Cerridwen]

8. Timmy McVeigh.

Are you wrong or are your feelings wrong? Nah. Feelings are what they are.

But the "boys will be boys" that you just posted, well, I'm one o' them "ball bastin'," "man-hatin'" feminists and I'm not buying that.

If we have a generation of "testosterone poisoned" males floating around this planet...I'm not willing to use that as an excuse to let them rape and murder people.

I'm just not.

It's time to jettison that excuse and wonder why so many "testosterone poisoned" men and boys manage to get through their every day life without raping and murdering (or attempting to murder) people.

I'm leaning toward the "testosterone poisoning" as a very convenient excuse for some screwed up minds and the rest o' "them boys" are the normal ones.

[TheBigotBasher]

20. I often do not disagree with ball bustin man hating feminists.

McVeigh was another lunatic filled up with far too much male testosterone, except with him his rage was actually encouraged and paid for by the US, and then they asked for some of the money back.

I can not enter that mentality, for many reasons I have an estrogen imbalance and always have done from a very early age. The results of that, I do not get to play in ball swinging displays.

Anger is directly related to testosterone.

Rape as a perversion is not limited to men.

[Cerridwen]

21. That just went right over your head, didn't it? *sigh* Ok. n/t

[TheBigotBasher]

29. Hardly

Do you really disassociate anger levels from testosterone?

I never said that makes any crime justifiable. Nor did I say that this guy has an excuse for what he did. I just feel sorry for what he will wake up to when he eventually calms down.

[blondeatlast]

50. One wonders if the bomber had been a young adult woman and been "on the rag" if the poster

would feel the same way.

Hormones can do nasty things--but personal moral codes manage to trump hormones damn reliably.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. Yes.

I'm willing to give a lot of leeway to people doing stupid things because they're young and stupid.

The attempted murder of several hundred people isn't one of them.

[ProudObamanaut]

22. So he is just young and dumb.....

and brainwashed into thinking this was his only purpose in life. How can we hold him personally responsible for this? Why is it right to hold him responsible and make him take all the blame when it was really the influences in his life that made him do it? I think that with just a little rational thinking we can see that it isn't his fault but rather the people around him that are to blame. We should find them and make them pay the amount due.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

27. The guards at the nazi concentration camps were just following orders.

They were just kids, really. They were feeling lonely and they wanted their superiors to like them. Maybe they had a little too much beer, who hasn't? Maybe they grew up in abusive households. Who's to say?

I really which people wouldn't go around assigning blame for the Holocaust. It's nobody's fault.

[TheBigotBasher]

31. The US and UK soldiers in Iraq?

Were they at fault?

Actually, yeah they were, many of them were prosecuted for following orders.

Tony Blair makes $millions for being the Middle East Peace consultant.

How fucked up is that?

[JI7]

28. he wasn't young and dumb, he is in his 20s, from a well to do family and educated

[TheBigotBasher]

32. 20s is not young?

I am nearing 40, I must be dead then.

[JI7]

33. young, but old enough to know what he was doing was not right

[TheBigotBasher]

30. I agree.

Fiding them will not excuse what he has done and he will never leave prison, but as a result, those behind this effectively did commit a murder of what could have been a talented life.

[Gman]

13. This guy is a nihilistic religious fanatic bastard

that could not care less about anybody. He needs to be locked up for life. He's lucky he won't be executed. This guy cannot be rehabilitated being that he is a nihilistic religious fanatic. In many ways he's no different than someone that kills abortion doctors except they succeed.

[beyurslf]

14. I don't think I can call your feelings "wrong" but I certainly don't share them

[cbdo2007]

15. Wait....you feel sorry for him because his bomb didn't go off properly???

So now you see him as some pawn that was duped into believing all this crazy shit to try to kill Americans??

Gee, good thing his bomb didn't work or you could make him a martyr for all the other testosterone raging idiots out there who also want to blow us all up.

[TheBigotBasher]

23. Absolutely NO

I feel sorry that this obviously well educated boy had a bomb (burning acid mix that would never have worked) in the first place; That he was stupid enough to believe his cause meant he should give up the lives of the hundreds of other passengers on the plane and that he will suddenly understand that for himself.

[seabeyond]

16. testosterone is a cop out. lots of young people make bad choices and fuck up the rest of their

lives. i feel bad for all of them.

his intent was pretty horrendous and he wasnt feeling too bad for anyone else he was trying to kill.

[mattvermont]

17. how about just maybe...

this guy was told by CIA acting as Al Qaeda, told this man that he could do this and get to heaven.
He didn't even have a means of setting off the explosive...don't you think that if they wanted to blow up the plane,
he would have been given the proper tools?
I submit for your discussion, that this is merely another false flag operation intended to line the pockets of interests invested
in airport security.
I just read that 1/2 of all cargo on any plane never goes through any security...and we are worried about body scans?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

19. Maybe he was working for Greyhound Bus Lines.

And wanted people to stop using planes and start using buses.

[mattvermont]

24. I gotta say

It would take more than an unarmed explosive on a plane to make me go greyhound.
Have you ridden across country on a Greyhound?

[JI7]

26. what's wrong with greyhound ?

[deaniac21]

46. Maybe, just maybe, pigs will fly out of my butt.

[iamjoy]

25. Sad, But Not Sorry For Him

I am sorry that there is so much suffering in this world. It is sad that some people feel their way to a better life, either in this world or another, lies in harming innocent people - or that they have such a twisted view of who is innocent that they are willing to indiscriminately murder.

Do you feel sorry for Lynddie England? She was just a foolish girl trying to get money to go to school before her mind got all twisted by the wrong people. It wasn't testosterone for her (or maybe it was) it was love for country and a man. She was in her early twenties, too. Foolish youth, right? Of course, she didn't get a life sentence, but that dishonorable discharge will follow her for the rest of her life.

I feel sorry for the Nigerian kid's parents - you know, they probably tried to raise their children well, do the right thing, etc and then one turns around and does something like this. I feel sorry for innocent Nigerians who would like to come to the United States and now find themselves painted with this terrorist brush.

For me though, the undie bomber blew his chance for my sympathy

[Imajika]

34. Nothing wrong with feeling sorry for him...

I think it is fine to feel sorry for, take pity on and even in the right circumstances show mercy to someone even when they commit a terrible crime.

In this case I am sorry that a kid with potential fell in with a bunch of religious nutcases.

I believe he should be tried, and if convicted probably spend the rest of life in prison - but I do feel a bit sorry for him and I will not celebrate his life having been ruined.

I also agree that at some point he may be sitting in his cell, reading, thinking and realize what a horrible mistake he made. Some mistakes can't be undone though.

He tried to kill a couple hundred completely innocent people. Society can't tolerate that, so he will probably have to sit in prison till his dies.

It's just sad.

[JI7]

35. should we release anyone who has killed who is in their 20s ?

[Vinnie From Indy]

36. Firstly, why would you care what people think? Why post this?

Your description of this man as being a not untypical(sic)angry student is ridiculous in the extreme. Angry students very rarely try to murder hundreds of people.

Further, if he spends the rest of life in prison it is not because he was stupid, it was because he tried to kill hundreds of innocent people in cold blood. These people he tried to murder are REAL people with real brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. I reserve my sorrow for them and I reserve my hope that this man will be fairly tried and, if convicted, spend a very, very long time in prison or a secure mental health facility.

[G_j]

37. he felt he was a soldier

whatever that says

[ecstatic]

38. I don't feel sorry for rich kids gone astray... I feel sorry for the poor kids

who make a simple mistake right here in the US and are sent to prison for years and years--basically their lives are destroyed because of the unfair justice system. But I don't feel sorry for the undie bomber. True, he's young and stupid, but he had everything he needed to live a normal, comfortable life.

[ChicagoSuz219]

39. I don't think testerone will be much of a problem anymore...

Seriously, though, I feel badly for his family... especially, his father.

Can you imagine how hard it must've been to turn his own son in... and then have the information be ignored?!?

I just thank God that his mission failed.

[shawcomm]

40. Yes, you are.

IMO. Fuck him.

[cali]

41. I don't feel sorry for him. Unlike, say, the teenage Somalian pirate

this kid grew up with every advantage. And just how does a prison sentence last after death?

[applegrove]

42. He tried to kill so many people. No matter how he was rolling and why you shouldn't feel

sorry for him. Save your considerable empathy for people who deserve it. And be careful of wearing your heart on your sleeve. People will take advantage of that...or try to.

[Pavulon]

43. Like paris hilton, instead of doing drugs

and getting laid he is all wound up over some voodoo and tried to kill himself. Sounds like a problem 2 weeks in Amsterdam would fix.

But no once he tried to murder 300 people I could give a shit if he hangs the minute after his usefulness as an intelligence asset expires.

He is not a boy, he is a man and can face up to what he did.

[TexasObserver]

44. His problem was hardly too much testosterone.

He was a lost young man, between his westernized father and his friends who wanted to make him into a jihadist. If you're looking for causation, it's not testosterone, but his weak self image, his lack of having a place in life in which he felt comfortable and his jihadist influences.

Sometimes a nut job is just a nut job. There is simply no logical basis for your "too much testosterone" diagnosis.

[proteus_lives]

45. Not stupid, misguided.

"He is in his early 20s, facing the rest of his life in a top security prison because he was stupid."

He deserves it. He was willing to kill a plane-full of people.

He deserves a pass because of "testosterone?" What the hell does that even mean?

If a woman commits a crime, does she get a pass if she was on the rag at the time?

[HipChick]

47. Not sorry for him..but I was approached by a cult

In my late teens...It seems kinda of similar brain washing..I could see how it might happen..

[shadowknows69]

48. I have to instinctively mourn the damage of any male genitalia

Because we all feel it even if we just read about it lol.

[Dappleganger]

49. Yes