Cyberherbalist

Don't be fooled by the title of this blog. I don't discuss herbs very much here. This blog is general-purpose, although I do like ranting about politics and religion.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Iraq Comments

Not that anyone reads this blog, but just in case there might be some such person, I would like to comment upon a recent event in Iraq that has caught my attention. I'm speaking of the kidnapping of some of Iraq Prime Minister Alawi's relatives by terrorists.

Apparently, this group is trying to put pressure on the PM to order the withdrawal of US and Iraqi forces from Fallujah, and are threatening to behead the hostages if their demands aren't met. One of the kidnappees is a pregnant woman. So we may be treated to news of her decapitated body with her dead unborn baby being found in some street in Baghdad later this week. Since the operation in Fallujah shows no signs of being called off, this may become reality.

Now kidnapping and beheading seem to have become a kind of Show of the Week in Iraq by those dedicated adherents to the "Religion of Peace," but it's clear that they're stepping over one more line in their efforts to make the world ever more jaded when it comes to senseless and cruel violence. If this keeps up, they will inadvertantly remove any kind of shockability from their audience, thus making their own activities seem normal. And once we're no longer moved by beheadings and tortures, what kind of attention and results will the terrorists get? It will be "Oh, look! We're going to cut off this person's head in the name of <something that the target audience may or may not care about>, so you better pay attention to us, and do our idiotic bidding!" And the response will be some kind of puzzled look on the public's face as the message comes across, followed by a slightly annoyed "Yeah, sure, whatever..." as the public turns back to whatever it was doing at the time. When the video of the beheading is later seen on Al-Jazeera, a few people will cluck their tongues about it, but most everyone else except a few police and the relatives of the victims will shrug their shoulders and go about their business. Pretty soon, even Al-Jezeera will get the idea that the public is bored with beheadings this week and will go on to something else. What will the terrorists do then to get attention?

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home