[ConfuseUs]

Here's my analysis of that drivel:

"We must also engage, however, in the more difficult task of understanding the sources of such madness."

We don't need to understand it; we merely need to destroy such sources of madness.

"The essence of this tragedy, it seems to me, derives from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers: an inability to imagine, or connect with, the humanity and suffering of others."

He's dead wrong. The essence of this tragedy is taking pleasure in others' suffering, a PERVERSE and EVIL ability to imagine and connect with the humanity and suffering of others.

Such a failure of empathy, such numbness to the pain of a child or the desperation of a parent, is not innate; nor, history tells us, is it unique to a particular culture, religion, or ethnicity. It may find expression in a particular brand of violence, and may be channeled by particular demagogues or fanatics."

He's right that no group of people is above using violence that is essentially nihilist to achieve something. He has failed to consider that many of these terrorists simply wanted to be violent for the sake of violence and clothed this naked desire for destruction in radical Islamic garb.

"Most often, though, it grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair."

All of the 9-11 hijackers came from middle class, comfortable families. They did not grow up poor and they were NOT ignorant. They were well-educated people who took definitive action to launch an air strike on the OTHER side of the world. They were hardly helpless and they fully believed that their actions would bring God's wrath upon the US.