The country is aghast at this brutality, but it shouldn't be. The only reason it's enervated is because the terrorists filmed the act and posted it on the internet. Atrocities like this have taken place in warfare and terrorism for years. Japanese military men raped and ravaged hundreds of thousand of Chinese in Nanking in 1937. Japanese officers had a beheading contest to see who could behead the most Chinese with samurai swords. Live Chinese captives were used for bayonet practice. At area 731 in Manchuria, the Japanese tested weapons on live Chinese, sprayed biological weapons on unwitting Chinese farmers and conducted live vivisections on downed Allied airmen.
Suffice it to say that that atrocities the Nazis committed are far more well-known.
Vietcong troops used to desecrate the bodies of killed American troops. Lest anyone think U.S. troops were immune from these depravities, plenty of it went on in reverse, as well. War is hell, as Sherman said, and that's a good thing, to paraphrase Robert E. Lee, or we would grow too fond of it.
So for all those innocents wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth, I can only say: George Santayana warned you about this.
Actually, he didn't mention ISIS or wartime atrocities. But he did say, famously, that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
If you don't believe me, check out these videos:
Nazis killing Jews.
ISIS killing Christians.
There is no qualitative difference between the two videos.
As with the Nazis and the Japanese, there is only one answer: Total War. No Geneva Convention treatment (although we abided by the Convention with the Japanese, they did not; the Germans did, by and large). No mealy-mouthed rules of engagement. The vast and awesome power of the United States military, assisted by other countries who believe in the rule of law, must be imposed on these murderers. Their like must be extirpated from the face of the earth. Unlike the Japanese and the Nazis, there is no state to overtake.
What's particularly chilling is that ISIS may well mimic the actions of The Following, a fictional piece of work where acolytes of a deranged murderer carry out hideous acts of depravity against unwary innocents because they believe it furthers the murderer's grand plan. Here, with ISIS, there may well be a core of religious zealots, but it is surrounded by castoffs, outcasts and criminals who are given free rein to commit murder on a grand scale.
The truly scary thing is that there are reports of people popping up in places with signs written in Arabic announcing that ISIS is in Chicago, or Washington, D.C., or London, or other Western locations. These people, like the Japanese before them, consider death an honorable outcome to their actions.
This is hardly the time for a humanitarian approach of engagement. No hemming and hawing, no indecisiveness. We need a direct approach that meets force with force. Our force is superior to theirs. If it weren't, why are the ISIS people in all the videos largely covering their faces? They fear our capabilities, as well they should. The only response people like this understand is overwhelming force, and we should oblige them by giving it to them.
There is a movie about the Korean War, Pork Chop Hill, in which the North Korean negotiators prove to be intransigent beyond stubbornness. The American negotiators step out of the conference room with the younger negotiator shaking his head. The wizened older negotiator tells him that it's a matter of the communists wanting to see how much we'll put up with this. It's a test of wills.
That's what we're facing. Call it ideology, intransigence or stubbornness, no matter how it manifests itself.
We have to be stronger. We have to have the testicular fortitude to do what's right, no matter how messy it is.
Our way of life depends on it.
Our lives depend on it.
(c) 2014 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles
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