Whistling Past the Graveyard

By now, most people have seen this photo which purports to be 100-200 Taliban fighters attending a funeral in Afghanistan. The black images superimposed atop the men lined up in neat formation is a gun sight from an armed Predator drone. With the simple touch of a button two AGM-114 Hellfire, laser guided, air-to-surface missiles could have sent these Islamists to their appointment with Allah. Unfortunately, the trigger, for whatever reason, was not pulled. Conflicting reports have emerged. The latest explanation given is that it could not be determined with a reasonable degree of certainty that these were, in fact, all or mostly Taliban fighters. The initial reason given by the Department of Defense spokesman was that protocols in Afghanistan prohibit attacking enemy combatants in cemeteries. It is worth noting that this alleged cultural sensitivity is not adhered to by the Taliban, who recently attacked rivals gathered for a funeral in a very similar circumstance. Simply said, this is just another example of politics tying the hands of those trying to win the war against the Islamists. If we truly want to win this war we need to realize that we must kill the enemy whenever, and wherever he is, and cultural sensitivities can be attended to in the aftermath. That is the only way to assure victory.

Before I delve into the minutiae of the legal opinion on attacking enemy combatants in a cemetery, I must say that I believe we are in a global war with radical Islam. I offer that opinion based on the number of countries in which Islamists have carried out, or attempted, attacks in the last five years. The United States, England, Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Chechnya, Sudan, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq have all seen violence wrought by Islamists in pursuit of their avowed goal of converting the world to Islamic rule. We are in a war of cultural ideals and to posit otherwise is, at best, overly simplistic, and, at worst, naive. That being the case we, as a democratic society, must hold ourselves to a higher standard than the Islamists, but we need not stretch to accommodate some perceived morality. On a local radio show this morning Scott Silliman, Professor and Executive Director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at the Duke University School of Law, and former Air Force JAG officer, was questioned about the rule of law involved in shooting at the assembled Taliban. He stated in response, "The standard applied was moral, not legal, cemeteries alone do not constitute protected areas." When questioned further he continued that the standard must "include a degree of certainty that you are firing upon a combatant and not a civilian. Collateral damage is allowable under law as long as it is not excessive to the value of the targeted area."

I am not a legal scholar, nor am I versed in the particulars of the international rule of warfare. I am, however, a thoughtful person and a former infantryman. Those two attributes make me well suited to accept the good professor at his word, and allow me to state unequivocally that had I been the one making the decision whether or not to fire upon the neat rows of terrorists I would have left behind nothing more than a smoking crater. Too often the statement that we must win their "hearts and minds" is bandied about as if it were a well tried and factual adage. Well, it did not work in Vietnam and it will not work here. We must make promises, not threats, and then follow through as ruthlessly as we can. You cannot make an enemy love you through the limited application of firepower. You can, however, make him fear you through the overwhelming application of the same. In World War II we dropped two atomic weapons on Japan knowing that in the end, although we killed tens of thousands of civilians, we were lessening our own number of casualties. By most estimates at the time we would have lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers and marines in any assault on mainland Japan. That same mindset must be the standard now.

Do not misunderstand me. I am not calling for the use of nuclear weapons, on cities, or anywhere for that matter. What I am calling for is unrestrained warfare within the boundaries of international law. Shock and Awe worked because it was just that: shocking and awful. Our mistake was not following through with the exchange. When it became evident that we would not be met wholesale as liberators we needed to respond with all the military might we could muster until we had pacified the entire region. Only then could we go about the business of winning the hearts and minds. We dropped the most devastating weapon available in the world at the time on the civilian population of Japan, and now they are one of our best friends and largest trading partners. Why? Because after they surrendered we exhibited the compassion for which Americans are rightly known. We rebuilt their infrastructure and economy. We set them on the path to democratic self-rule and then left them alone. That is what we must do in Iraq and Afghanistan if we are to defeat the Islamists.

Finally, we must remember that the tradition of Islam to which the radicals adhere is not the one of peace of which we are constantly reminded. It seems no one can make a statement about terrorism without stating that theses miscreants have hijacked a religion of peace. I have my misgivings about the veracity of that statement having read the Qur'an, but nevermind. I know the Islamists wish for a return to the 12th century, as well as knowing that the only element they recognize is might. They take kindness for weakness and attack at our soft underbelly. It is no coincidence that Hezbollah, al Qaeda and the like all make reference to Muslim victories of centuries gone by. They fervently believe that only through the forceful reinstatement of Islamic Sharia law can the messiah return. They adore death because they have been conditioned into believing in the virgin-filled afterlife. They will accept no negotiation. They fully expect to die in droves to advance their cause of removing Israel from the map, reconquering Europe and destroying us, as a people and a country. Do these sound like people who would respect us for not firing on them just because they happened to be assembled in a cemetery? Quite the opposite. All over the world Islamists are gathered together discussing the foolishness of us not killing our enemies. All over the world Islamists are laughing at our fecklessness and plotting the murder of civilians. Men who will decapitate prisoners, and fly airplanes into buildings for their god, cannot be negotiated with. They must be ruthlessly exterminated. Nothing else will suffice, and if the American public could just tear themselves away from yet another season of American Idol I know the spirit that tamed a continent would return. I only hope that the spirit somehow materializes before it is too late.