I always believe that understanding is important. There are those who think "Understanding==Condoning", which I find a tremendously, and needlessly, false equivalency. I think you need to understand, to trully fight and hopefully defeat something.
How far does the atrocity go? What are the causes? Is this a one-of or repeated act? Who all is involved? And, ultimately, What are the inflection points that can lead to effective prevention?
I'm put in mind of the classic quote attributed to Aristotle:
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
If you demonize and dehumanize your ideological opponents - and even true enemies - you won't be able to understand them well enough to effectively counter them.
Yes, but why? They're up there fighting Boko Haram -- this is a war-torn part of the world. Why is the Cameroonian military killing the people they're charged with protecting?
It's something I'd really like to know, after reading through this. I don't understand anything but the most superficial issues facing this region, and it rather shocked me that the national military that's up there to quell the Boko Haram insurgency is committing these atrocities.
I mean, yes, people kill people for fun. People kill children because they're monsters, and I get that. But is that what's happening here? Or is this ethnic cleansing? Or is this something else entirely?
The french population doesn't like the English population. The English part is a minority and feel like a 2nd class citizen in their own country. A lot of them are being killed, you can google these answers. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-44459488/cameroon-c...
I've read your post and the parent's post three times but I still cannot understand the point you're making in response to their point. Can you clarify what point you're trying to make, and specifically, put it in context for trying to discover the motivations for the murders? Do you think seeking motivations is pointless because "they murdered two children" ?
For example is this soldiers initiative or part of a general tactics encouraged by the higher command?
Was the execution justified (i.e. motivated, that is, it was not a cover up or a random killing)?
I can come up with few reasons to kill the woman but why the child? Is there some message behind this killing?
Naturally these questions do not matter for despising such behaviour but are important to help to understand the human nature.