It is the nature of a terrorist to find and exploit the most effective means to scare or horrify their opponent. The sad news is; that they have found it.
The humiliating and torturous beheadings that are being carried out in Iraq and Saudi Arabia have caught the worlds attention; placing us all on a series of countdowns...as one hostage after another is beheaded for us to see.
It is a very cruel game they play; as they know it makes us want to strike back...and we can't because they are faceless and very capable of replacing even their leaders in this battle against us foriegners. There is no solid target to strike back at. That is endlessly frustrating to a culture that beleaves in battling their opponents "by the rules".
The ultimate purpose of this new method of terror is to make every foriegn national in their country afraid that he will walk or drive around the wrong corner and end up on TV.
The only answers to this delema are to (a)answer terror with terror with equally ruthless counter attacks and assassinations.(B)Get out all civilians who are vulnerable...(C)Get out of those countries.
At this point; Leaving is not the best choice. The reason is simple. if we show the terrists that this method works, they will continue to use it in other places.
Massive military retaliation does not work...Ask Isreal. It breaks things down to a get even kind of mentality..sound familiar?
Besides...this means more civilian casualties and the terrorists have shown no reluctance to killing their own people in the process. We are not fighting a nation with boundaries and capitols to take. We are fighting individuals.
The only way to win at this game is to send teams to ruthlessly wipe out every suspected terrorist that we can find...and prepare a lot of body bags because they will assuredly up the Anti too.
But we won't do that because we have the image of holding to a higher level of morality...which makes us vulnerable.
The trap to this; is our own sense of pride and outrage that will not allow us to retreat under these conditions. We will act like a great bear...swatting at mosquitoes...We will cry to the world that we have the moral justification to defend ourselves, and our cause. The world will only look at the dead and blame us for (as they see it) our starting this.
This latest "terror" tactic will continue till the terrorists figure out something even more effective to try...
Welcome to politics in the Middle East. Also known as yet another no win situation...
Frank
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"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."
