What can brown do for you?

In the midst of all the self-congratulatory publicity over how respectful and accurate the film "United 93" is, the LA Times did a piece on the actors who play the hijackers. (Use bugmenot to get an id/pwd.) The piece says the actor picked to play the lead hijacker was reassured by the fact that the director was going to depict the character as "three dimensional" and even "hesitant" to carry out his mission.

No doubt this nuanced portrayal made for a better cinematic experience, but how realistic is it? Is there any evidence that Ziad Jarrah, the lead hijacker on the plane where the passengers fought back, was "hesitant" about anything, or that he was anything than a dedicated terrorist? Just imagine the mind-set of people who can carry out suicide missions -- could anyone carry out such a desperate, violent act if he had any "hesitation" at all? Isn't it more likely that in order to carry out such an act you have to completely empty your mind of any thoughts that might deter you?

I think the real horror of the story behind the incidents of Sep. 11, and all modern terrorism, is not the danger that someone might think terrorists are somehow subhuman, but the fact that they are in fact fully human. That's the horror: that committing violence on a large scale against innocent people can be -- has been, and is today -- the choice of someone who is, unfortunately, all too human, and in their ability to fear and hate others, little different from you and me.

Of course, they are ultimately different, in the way they choose to express these emotions. But I doubt the emotions -- which are what make us human -- are really that much different.

Link to the LA Times story courtesy Sepia Mutiny, one of the best "Desi blogs" I've found.