Sympathy for the Devil

I was finishing The Looming Tower the other day and I got to the part where Al Qaeda had just attacked the US and the leaders were moving their families around so that the anticipated American response would have less of a chance of killing them.  The author had already gone into detail about some of the American characters that were killed when the World Trade Center fell and I think every American feels at least some degree of personal connection with 9/11 even if they weren't there, so when the time came for the Al Qaeda operatives to run, I certainly didn't feel sorry for them.  However, there was another aspect that bothered me. In one of the final chapters, the author talks about Zawahiri's family and how they were running to avoid the American bombardment.  I had no idea what happened to them at the time.  I knew that Zawahiri lived and so did bin Lade (obviously) but their families were something else.  However, I was secretly hoping that Zawahiri's family would die in the attack so that the son of a bitch would know what thousands of American families felt.  When it actually happened, I didn't feel a bit of sympathy for them either, even though his wife apparently had no idea that her husband was one of the leaders of the group or that he had anything to do with the attack.  To make matters worse, his 4 year old daughter had Downs Syndrome and was certainly an innocent to the conflict.  I know that it's sick, even monstrous, but I didn't care that she was killed.  I want Zawahiri and the late bin Laden to experience every type of pain and agony that is possible in this life and the loss of their loved ones will give them a taste of exactly what they put so many people through.  Honestly, part of me thinks that there are certain people out there that deserve a special room down in Guantanamo where they get tortured 22 hours a day until they beg for death.  Hitler, bin Laden, Pol Pot; certain people that have done such unspeakable things that they don't deserve to be treated humanly.

I think this relates to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict very well because I can see how an Israeli who lost someone to a suicide bomber or a Palestinian who lost their house to an Israeli bulldozer could feel unwavering hatred toward the other side and be happy when bad things happen to them.  I think its unfortunate and I think its something that can be overcome, but I also think that its simply a part of human nature.  Part of us thrives on revenge and we aren't happy until we've achieved it.