Quote Originally Posted by Greenbeanz View Post
Well done Kirkland in making excuses for the cowardly barbarous murder of civilians. You can't legitimise 9/11 by saying killing civilians is the fault of anyone but those who carried it out.
I'm not making an excuse for anything or trying to justify anything.

Let's say me and you are going to a football match. We're seated outside a pub before the game enjoying a glass of chilled chablis and watching the world go by. On the other side of the street X, a big bugger in stylish blue polyester, is walking down the street. Y, a smaller man clad in red ployester, is walking the other way. As they come up to each other X punches Y right in the dish. Y falls to the ground, gets up, takes a knife out of his pocket and stabs Y with it, killing him instantly.

Now lter we're talking about the incident. I say to you that if X hadn't punched Y in the face in the first place then he'd never have been stabbed and killed. I might also comment on the nature of violent acts begetting further violence. I see this as reasonable speculation about the incident and violent acts in general. Neither of these two arguments negates the fact that the stabbing was a reprehensible act of murder, excuses it or justifies it in any way.