I'm probably gonna set a few people off with the comments that follow. I'll provide warning now.
ADULT THEMES AND/OR COMMENTS MAY FOLLOW.
If you are easily offended, or quick to call my common sense ideas cold and heartless, or barbaric or worse, then too friggin bad. If you want to add a comment, go ahead. Debate the ideas if you want even. But then let the thoughts and comments sink in and tell me when they do that I'm wrong. Tell me that what I suggest is not really the way to go and go even further and tell me how what I suggest will never work. I dare you. I double dare you.
Note, I'm not flagging this as an "adult" conversation, as I expect the warning above to be sufficient. If it's not, then blame yourself, not me.
Unless you were under a rock somewhere and are completely disassociated with any form of news, you should by now know that today (July 7, 2005) bombs were set off by terrorists in London. In an effort that smacks of being organized and orchestrated by Al Qaeda and/or their friends, and one which at least one "Al Qaeda" affiliated (even if only loosely) group has claimed responsibility, dozens of persons were killed and scores more were injured.
There are several blog entries and forum posts through JoeUser on the topic. I don't wish to pile on, but some thoughts continue to roll through my head.
With a nod to BakerStreet for his earlier comments on the subject, I would be what many would call "pissed off". I'm pissed off because we continue to pussyfoot around in the war on terror by catering to the rights and human dignities of the individuals that we have in captivity currently. We worry more about minimizing collateral damage in our efforts to take out insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan than in literally flattening areas where we face guns pointed back at us.
Well, I've had enough. Hell, I had enough a long time ago, but thankfully enough for some, I'm not in charge of the efforts to deal with these terrorists.
What we need to do to solve this problem once and for all is to send a message that can't be mistaken, one that says we are prepared to end the hostilities against us once and for all. A message that tells the pigs we are fighting against that they can not win and their efforts will result in nothing but a waste of their lives and complete loss of all that is of value to them.
First, for each of the victims of today's attack we should be taking a finger off a captive that is being held in Gitmo. If there is doubt that the individual was actually involved in the fight and wasn't merely wandering around on the battlefields at the wrong time, then perhaps skip past them and move on to someone that was clearly carrying a gun with intent to kill. I'm betting that there are still plenty of such individuals in captivity in Gitmo. Break out the video cameras, even if you have to get Lindy Englund and friends to do the work and filming, and film the fingers being clipped off.
Don't stop there though. Take those fingers and walk across the room to the McDonald's style fryers that are loaded with bacon grease. Drop the fingers in the grease and let 'em cook. Once they're nice and crispy, lay them out again for the cameras to see as we take the same fingers and toss them into the troughs for pigs to eat. Swine for the swine.
Add in a nice narration that warns that what is being filmed is just the beginning. If the violence doesn't stop, the individuals at Gitmo will be turned into worthless martyrs. Considering that the pigs we have been fighting against have beheaded kidnapping victims because they believe that if a head is separated from the body the individual can't cross into heaven, let it be known that the individuals at Gitmo -- and any other individuals that are caught on the battlefield or killed on the battlefield -- will lose their heads, which will also be fried in bacon grease and then fed to pigs.
You might ask why pigs? Because the individuals we are dealing with are just that. Swine. But more importantly because to their own fanatical religious beliefs, pigs are unclean. Putting the spare parts we clip off into bacon grease would guarantee that the "poor victim" would never be clean, and they too would never be able to enter heaven (according to their reported religious beliefs).
If that doesn't stop the problem, then slowly but surely round up the family members of those that we know to be involved. Bin Laden's family, his henchmen, the families of the battlefield combatants we have in custody, etc. You remember, those same people who in the Saddam days in Iraq that were collecting $25,000 checks. Let them experience the same fates that their heros did. Until they start to realize that those individuals are not heros, and until they realize that perhaps its time to hand over the persons that have been leading the way to their future demise.
Are my suggestions barbaric? Perhaps, but again, we're fighting a war against people that aren't playing by the rules that govern the sport of boxing. Our enemy has no rules. They understand only power and violence. It's time to use power and violence to send them a message they can't mis-understand. Let these idiots and any that desire to be like them know forever that their eternities will be spent in hell, rather than some glorified afterlife where they believe they'll be headed for an orgy as soon as they get there.