Retaliation is not progressive

If we allow people to cite historical outrage to justify current aggression and moral transgression, then we authorize literally billions of people to retaliation and devastation on an unprecedented scale.

We don't live in the worlds of the past; we cannot oppose or halt the crimes of those who lived in them. All we can do, and must do, is to try to stop those who would embrace violence and terror as their methods today. We should not be dissuaded from this commitment by the arguments of the apologists who would rationalize their current acts on the basis of narrow, one-sided interpretations of complex events that occurred in the past.

[Crossposted on The Huffington Post]