andyt
CKA Uber
Posts: 33492
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 8:01 pm
First para, I read no apology, just a statement of facts. Maybe you didn't quote enough, and the author apologizes later, but what you quoted is just a description, that this was (is?) a troubled guy. Others in his postion might have succeeded at suicide, as Robin Williams did, gotten help for their illness, gone on to shoot up a supermarket, or found a positive outlet for their mania that made them admired world over until the eventually committed suicide as Robin Williams eventually did. Bipolar disorder is a pernicious illness. None of that excuses this guy turning jihadi, and I didn't read any excuses in the part you quoted.
As for the regular guy bit, why not? These guys start off as regular guys. As do many of the other non-Islamists we hear about that that do outrageous things. At one time they would have said Paul Bernardo was a regular guy - how often do we that about people that blow out. Again I don't hear any excuses. The guy was a regular guy, then he changed and he wasn't. The guy who was just killed (other thread) would have seemed like a regular guy at one time
I'm quite willing to believe that there are people who make excuses in one way or another, but I think you might be looking too hard for them as well.
As for Khadr, yes - if you were raised as he was, I wonder how you would have turned out. His actions are far less perplexing than these other guys'.
