The Business of Death
by Daniel Beadle - Thursday, September 6, 2007
“Terrorists, arms dealers, governments… Their differences lie in the details of their respective operations. But to color any one of such organizations as evil is an idiotic precept. Criticize terrorists as much you like, but at least they are committed. They have values that they are willing to die for. There was a time when that was an admirable characteristic. But principles are vagaries of perception that are ultimately an effort in naivety.“Have you ever heard of the elephant seal? The elephant seal is the sole member of a particular genus of the family known literally as ‘true seals.’ Their name is derived from their great size, and the fact that the adult males have a large proboscis. There are the largest members of the order Carnivora. It is common practice during their mating season for males to quarrel over females by lunging their heads at one another. After a seemingly endless series of blows, one of the seals becomes so thoroughly wounded, and so weak from blood loss, that he will retreat into the ocean, effectively yielding to the stronger or, in this case, durable male. The more I learn of animal behavior, the more parallels I find between these many species and man.
“Mankind has an inherent heir of superiority that leads them to believe that they are unique in this world, that their collective existence is justifiably greater to anything and everything else. It is this same line of thinking that allows the citizens of a bloodthirsty empire and war machine known as the United States to consider terrorists as inferior life, as an evil gagle of savage and foolish men. The only difference I see is the money each group has in their bank account.
“I cannot delineate my actions; what I do for one side, I do for the other. War is the business of troubled governments. Political reaction is the business of terrorists. My business… is death. And both sides have a great deal of common ground as far as that objective is concerned.”
“Are you telling me that you fund, and profit from… terrorists?”
“On both sides, Mr. Evers.”
