Some things human are alien to me

There's a letter to yesterday's Groan from Michael Strange of the University of Essex. It says in part:

Despite common usage,"terrorism" has no uncontested definition. It is thoroughly politicised. However, a more acute problem is the dehumanisation of events it supports. Though we might view [perpetrators] of killings against civilians as cold and heartless, any mature and constructive approach capable of preventing further incidents must acknowledge the human side of such attacks - of the so-called terrorists as well as the victims.

Mr Strange's meaning isn't everywhere crystal clear, but of the passage quoted it may be remarked that it is in one sense true that we must acknowledge the 'human side' of terrorist atrocities, and it is in another sense not true. Terrorists are human and not alien beings, and it is important to know that. Those who perpetrate cruel horrors - what we sometimes call 'monstrosities' - against innocent people are not actually monsters, they are of our species. We need to understand the psychological mechanisms, the social, political and ideological processes by which human beings come to behave in these ways. At the same time, if acknowledging the 'human side' of what they do is supposed to call for some sort of moral softening of our judgement of what they do, then the answer has to be 'Nothing doing.' The Strange letter contrasts viewing the perpetrators of terrorist attacks against civilians as 'cold and heartless' with a more 'mature and constructive approach'. But one needn't care less whether they're cold and heartless, or are, rather, absolutely dripping with human warmth for their intended victims. What they do is morally appalling, and they are owed no sympathy for it from others, not even so much as an ounce.

As it happens, it was also reported in yesterday's Guardian that there are plans afoot (by an outfit of no doubt all-too-human terrorists) 'to attack the UK with a nuclear weapon'. Whether or not we should think of this as a 'cold and heartless' plan, I do wonder if there'd be anyone writing to that newspaper, were a Western government threatening a nuclear attack against some non-Western country - writing to urge that we remember the human side of this threatened attack and those threatening it.

Why don't we all just agree that everyone is human (who is), and that that doesn't excuse the inexcusable?