Tom, your full opinion is right here in this thread, few lines above. Quoting part of your post is just a way - quite conventional, i think - to quickly refer to what part of your post I am replying to. Sorry if you felt I misrepresented your ideas, I did not mean to.

BTW, thanks for sharing the interesting article from Ars Technica.

I may agree that, even in my experience, most people doing harm do so because *they* believe there's a valid reason for it. And I agree one should not let such events impact our faith in human kind. I am generally an optimist at that regard and I did not mean to suggest otherwise in telling you guys my story here.

I like to think that understanding the reasons for wrong doing and justifying those reasons are two different things. We should understand, be compassionate, help possibly, but not justify.

Incidentally, you'll be surprised how much better are Russian recently doing, which is great, and not related to this story. Just a side note.