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ISIS Beheads American Journalist, Threatens Another
Breaking news out of the Middle East:
Published in GeneralIn a video posted online Tuesday, ISIS beheads James Wright Foley, an American freelance journalist who was captured in Syria in 2012. The video says the killing is a warning to the U.S. to end its intervention in Iraq. The video also shows Steven Sotloff, a freelance journalist working for Time, and threatens that he will be next. Sotloff’s kidnapping seems to have been kept secret until now. Foley was working as a photographer in Syria for AFP when he was taken. The year prior he had been kidnapped in Libya.
Prayers for the families of James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
Someone needs to explain to ISIS that murdering a captured journalist isn’t impressive; it’s just evil and disgusting.
Tell that to The Crocodile.
For some reason, this horrifies me—it makes me feel much worse than if they had spontaneously shot and killed the same reporter on the street. Right now, I want to shout the equivalent of “Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!”, and I want a president with the guts of Teddy Roosevelt to punish these [CoC redacted]!
(Also, I won’t get too caught up in debating the actual outcome of the Perdicaris episode.)
My prediction of the response from official Washington: “And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.”
Oh, don’t get me wrong: they’re well beyond explaining to. Horrific as this is — and I concede I’m a bit queasy after seeing the pictures and can only imagine what the man went through and what his family must be feeling — it’s not really that scary. You mean you can ritually murder unarmed combatants with a knife? Humans figured out how to do that millennia ago. Congrats.
Color me disgusted and angry, but thoroughly unimpressed.
I disagree.
The only reason ISIS captures and murders a journalist is because they know that the US – especially this administration – will respond by caving. If our response was to launch a full scale invasion and literally annihilate ISIS, they would not think that murdering journalists is in any way effective. If we could respond by wiping out their entire organization and taking over their country, this kind of thing wouldn’t happen. And that is absolutely how we should respond.
“A fate worse than death” was once a phrase used to describe dishonor. It seems these days that capture is a fate leading only to a death with the executioner coercing the condemned to dishonor themselves via a dictated script.
ISIS wants us to take them seriously as a bunch of throat-hacking America-haters. It’s past time that we do so.
My God! It should be mentioned that of course this kind of behavior is routine practice for ISIS. I guess their victim being an American makes it more personal, but these people revel in sadistic violence and there is no shortage of self supplied evidence of their barbarity and depravity. These people are orcs. There can be no mistake about this. The more Americans become exposed to their evil the more it should strengthen our resolve that we must stamp these (expletive) out.
Editors,
This is the face of jihad. They are not terrorists. They are not militants. They are jihadists. They murder in ways prescribed by the Koran. They justify violent conquest of any and all nations. They justify conversion by the sword. Extortion & kidnapping are assumed tactics to be used. Cease fires, truces, and treaties are just temporary subterfuges to gain time, rearm, and reinforce.
This is not Islamaphobia. A moderate Muslim is one who has renounced jihad. A radical Muslim is one who has not. Jihad is an unlimited declaration of war on anyone who is not Muslim. We can not live with these people because they will not live with us. They give us no choice.
Regards.
Jim
We don’t necessarily disagree. My comment was about the proper emotional response, not whether we should go in or not. These barbarians deserve our contempt, not our fear.
I supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as well as the surge, and I could well be persuaded to support another campaign (this moves me in the direction of doing so, though I’m not over the fence yet). I just don’t want us confusing their evil with their competence.
I want the president to lobby Congress to pass a conditional declaration of war—an “authorization to use force,” if you will—that says if they kidnap or kill one more American, that we will go to war against them and will arm others who fight them.
Our government exists to protect the rights of our citizens, and among these are *life*…
Again, we’re really not disagreeing.
Hey Obama, these [I will redact this for you] just mocked your manhood.
There have always been barbarians in our midst, but in previous centuries, civilized men had the balls to counter with the brutal strength to render a Carthage-like solution.
No, it should be mentioned that with regards to ISIS a mere beheading is exercising “restraint”.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/18/us-iraq-security-yazidis-idUSKBN0GI1QK20140818?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
ISIS slaughters the unarmed & bound. ISIS is evil. Oh, for a president with the moral courage and confidence to act not merely to condemn.
Dear God.
I assumed we were in agreement. Although I add that our contempt should take the form of literally wiping them off the face of the earth. I am inclined to agree with James Gawron on this one. I’ve studied some small amount of Islam, and he’s right about it not being inconsistent with the more militant branches. He’s also right about their being peaceful muslims… that’s the problem. Liberals always talk about Japaneze internment camps or discrimination or profiling. I think these things are bad, but they don’t justify inaction. They aren’t shields like little children for terrorists to hide behind. Peaceful muslims are a casualty of the radical, not us.
Evil does not result from a lack of knowledge.
This will continue unless and until we are willing to do what is necessary to eradicate them once and for all. The purpose of the army is not to win hearts and minds but to kill people.
Jan Sobieski and the Winged Hussars have been the best historical example.
Duplicate post.
ISIS delenda est.
Lord, have mercy!….St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle…
Pseud,
“Veni, vidi, Deus vicit” – “I came, I saw, Gd conquered”
Regards,
Jim
Pseudodionysius (#21),
Those crucifixions were in June. There were additional crucifixions, in both Syria and Iraq, in July.
Kyrie Eleison
I have a friend from college that grew up with Foley and I absolutely cannot imagine what he and the family are going through. These next few days and weeks are going to be important as Ferguson gets knocked off the front page and existential threats come to the fore. They will kidnap you, they will behead you, and they carry western passports.
Exactly!
one would think that these sort of snuff films would back off, at least at the margins, the post-modern moral equivalence crowd. In the meantime, I’ll refer to this bunch as “Headchoppers of Peace”. There. Now I’ll go back to pondering John Yoo’s reprehensible torture memos.
I saw the video before YouTube took it down. James Foley died with courage and honor. Who can remind me of the name of the Italian hostage whose last words were before his beheading reportedly were, “I’ll show you how an Italian dies.” God, for that kind of bravery. I’m just in awe. But knowing that lefty weakling in the White House will do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to avenge them – or any of us, if the Fates may have it — makes me sick. I can’t even sleep.