2nd Hostage beheaded

You just started the thread. Welcome to ********ed up situation, population all of us. Any list of American civilian casualties should as a result be merged with this list.

Prayers go out to all families and loved ones of all those lost to this thing that never had to happen, but did, and is happening.

 

Where's verybdog clamoring for an educational video?

 

The beheadings are extremely unnerving, from our great distance. The victims seem absolutely terrified of a brutal and painful death. Beheading is a "personal" way of killing someone. It must be devasting to the friends and families of the vicitims. My thoughts go out to the hostages and their loved ones.

 

Very true. I remember the glee of some reporters describing the "shock and awe" bombings as if it were a fireworks display. Even when necessary, there is nothing redeeming in that sort of massive violence.

These beheadings are sick, and are particularly troubling as they are attacking civilians who have done nothing. Still, we live in a society that straps people onto tables and injects them with lethal doses of poison (before anyone starts, I know that most of them are far from innocent).

The pain involved in the beheadings is unthinkable, but the feeling of fright is probably not too different if you know you have 10-15 seconds left to live. That goes for the poor souls who had to jump from the WTC as well.

 

Actually, I don't think we have the stomach for it. Any time casualties mount in Iraq, public opinion for the war itself loses ground. These grisley killings are a test by Islamic militants, a scare tactic. "Look at what a bunch of crazy motherf*#$rs you are fighting against. Don't #$%@ with us." That's what they are trying to tell the American public as they execute our civilians and video tape it for the world to see. Why else would they do it? Why not just try to kill as many Americans as possible, in a less public and brutal manner. A bullet works just as well as a knife. And they aren't going to be able to extort the US government to meet their demands. They should know that by now. Those men were dead as soon as they were kidnapped, they had no chance. This is all about keeping us scared.

Personally, I think the men who do this are cowardly. Show your faces, tell the world who you are and make yourself known, if you are so strong as to stand against the US and the Western World, who abhor your brutal killings.

 

Speak for yourself.

One of the reasons I don't bring it up is because it's so upsetting. You should have been around here when Nick Berg was beheaded. Nothing good came of that thread. Nothing at all. So I don't bring it up.

 

I agree. When I read about these things happening, I cannot come up with any clear kind of thought for myself, much less any thoughts that would be of use to anyone else.

 

Exactly.

 

I knew that watching one of these videos would greatly upset me, but I watched the most recent one anyways just so that I could get some perspective. I was barely able to hold my lunch down. The manner in which these people are beheaded, with no more than a essentially a small kitchen knife that takes several minutes to accomplish, is just unspeakably horrible.

I honestly don't know what f'ed up logic can bring someone to justify doing something like this, it's just uncomprehendable. And it's not just an Islamic problem. Atrocities like this have been committed in the name of God/Jesus/Allah/Yahweh/whatever for thousands of years. Is it the fault of organized religion, or is it something more sinister that lies in humans that would be brought out anyway, God notwithstanding?

 

I believe the latter. Religion is simply one of the means that people use to rationalize that kind of behavior.

 

Yeah. I saw the Danny Pearl video, then I saw the Nick Berg video (which made the Pearl movie look like "Sesame Street", as horrific as that is). I don't feel any real need to watch the new ones.

 

Well said.

 

I mostly read here, and seldom post, but if I had to guess who would be the first to attempt dilution or marginalization of these intentionally savage murders by introducing a mitigating "yeah, but what about...", you would definitely be at the top of the list.

 

i dont really mean to second-guess these guys, but, ok... if youre an american captured, you pretty much know theyre gonna stick you in front of a camera and then behead you because, well, our country doesnt talk to or negotiate with those types of people... yet, you look at the photos and the video and whatnot, and theyve got guns pointed at them. why wouldnt you fight like hell and try and take one of them out, or escape or something.

maybe its just me but being shot seems better than beheading.

 

They're blindfolded and handcuffed, there's really not a whole lot they can do. If you struggled you'd just get a rifle butt to the back of the head.

What I don't get is why these bastards think sh** like kidnapping American's and making demands will actually work. When have we ever negotiated with terrorists? When have we ever capitulated to such a stupid demand like this ever before?

 

That's not the point. The point (it seems) is to make the war in Iraq unpleasant enough that US public opinion turns against it and we leave.

 

We are waiting to tommorrow after they behead the Englishmen. What is the point?

 

This post got the negative rep it deserves.