Ben did not commit genocide. The Purge was not genocide; it was mass murder. I wish people would quit using emotionally packed words like that incorrectly.

The DI was essentially an invading army in khaki jumpusits. They had no respect for the culture already living on the island and built on top or near the native’s ancient structures in order to conduct experiments. They came close to destroying one of those structures (the wall surrounding the pocket of exotic matter) and with it the world. Dharma was ready to unleash unknown forces in order to conduct experiments involving properties they knew little about.

It is not murder to fight off invaders. Dharma was at war with the natives and those who died in the Purge were the causalities of a war they themselves started. There were a number of DI members who also passively took part in the Purge because they understood the immorality of what they were doing.

Is Ben a cold blooded killer if he trying to defend his country from an invasion? Doesn’t that make him a patriot? And yes it became his country when, as a child, two members of the DI handed him over to the natives and allowed them to physically and psychologically change him into a native. Jacob is the leader of the island and he determines who lives and dies on his island not Ann Arbor.

This is how our perception of Ben will change. We will learn what is at stake on the island and be confronted with our prejudices. Our point of view will be turned upside down so good will be bad and wrong will be right. It’s all just a matter of perspective anyway isn’t it?

1. Ben comes to the island with Roger after mother Emily’s death.
2. Ben gets abused by his father for…well for nothing.
3. Ben starts taking sandwiches (minus-mustard) to Sayid. Sayid then escapes with help from the little bugger and then repays the favor by shooting him in chest.
4. Ben is taken into the temple by Richard.
5. Ben is visited by Widmore when he awakes. Widmore tells him HE CAN’T STAY THERE NOW, but that he would always be “one” of the others…so he returns to the DI…
6. He grows up…he festers, he stays mad at dear ole dad, until one day (for some reason) he is part of the purge…
7. Afterwards, he joins the others and one day is sent by Widmore to kill a French woman and low and behold, she has a daughter…so he takes Alex…
8. Then, some time later as Alex appears to be 6ish on the swing, he plays a large role in banishing Widmore…a time when they are already living in DI compound (aka, New Otherton)

So that brings clears the whole Widmore-Ben-Purge timeline up right?

Hawking seems too important, too central a figure with the Others, for Ben not to know her and her role.

There’s a difference between “responsible for ordering it” (not being discussed here) and “responsible for performing it” (which is being discussed here).

Ben willingly does all of these things and did not have to be manipulated to do so, not even by Jacob.

Also, you say that Ben has no one above him pulling strings…um, Jacob? “Everyone answers to someone, John” (see the Man Behind the Curtain). We know Jacob is real, we know his word usurps ALL authority, and we know Ben tried to appease Jacob by turning the Donkey Wheel (“I hope your happy now Jacob”). So how could you say Ben doesn’t have an some other force at least attempting to pull his strings? After all, everything he has done he did for the Island, otherwise Smokey would have Mr. Eko-ed his butt. He DOES have the plot “conveniences” for redemption, and I hope he finds it.

He may not have ordered it, but he certainly took part.