Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think what ric is trying to get at is that an evil person has to begin somewhere; that there are certain pressures within culture and society that work on us, leading us to either do good or evil. Ultimately that is our choice, but we may feel so strongly that what we are doing is the right thing that we are blinded to the consequences of our actions; also, the pressure on us to go in a certain direction may be so strong that we never consider making any other possible decision. I think both the Bush Administration and Al-Qaeda are guilty of the former; they are simply different sides of the same coin.