He Has a Name

Muath al-Kasaesbeh

The Jordanian pilot appears to have gotten the worst punishment to date by ISIS captors.  The young man held in a cage was burned alive with cameras apparently recording not only the sights but the sounds.

ISLAMIC TERRORISTS is what they are.  They believe in the Quran; they are Islamic; they do not claim otherwise.  But they are terrorists and claim as the basis for what they do their belief system.

What is a terrorist?  I found this definition online in a couple of places word-for-word. 

Terrorism is commonly defined as violent acts (or threat of violent acts) intended to create fear (terror), perpetrated for a religious, political, or ideological goal, and which deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (e.g., neutral military personnel or civilians). Another common definition is political, ideological or religious violence by non-state actors. Some definitions now include acts of unlawful violence and war.

The pilot was apparently carrying out a mission to deter or destroy ISIS members or holdings.  He was not a non-combatant, but in previous acts, ISIS members have beheaded a number of non-combatant individuals who were captured and taken against their will.

I was born in 1946 -- the year after WWII ended.  Our government and other governments were still trying to sort out the despicable and horror-filled deeds of the German dictator and his henchmen.  The Germans were organized and kept excellent records and therefore, the names of all of those killed in the gas chambers and then burned in the crematoria were known full well.  Even after what some of our soldiers saw when they liberated the concentration camps, the extent of the holocaust was still sending out shock waves a year after Germany fell to the allies.

Bits and pieces of what happened in Nazi Germany were being reported by journalists in 1946.  My mother would have been trying to understand what happened in a faraway place where many of our men died.  Unbeknown to her, the home of my father's relatives was taken over by the Nazis and the woman who lived there was forced to live in the basement and cook for them.  A little farther away from that village, an entire segment of my father's family was executed on a December day by the Nazis.

What we are seeing is horribly disturbing to me.  We studied WWII extensively especially because it had only ended less than 20 years before I went to college.  It had been filmed and documented.  It involved most of the countries of the world in one way or another.  One of the main things we learned was the total failure of appeasement.  Town-by-town in Germany, the residents did nothing as the Nazis came and took over and ferreted out the Jews.  So that was their part of appeasement.

The English prime minister, Chamberlain, wanted no part of war.  He was one who thought that if they just gave in to Hitler, offered him another country, everything would be all right.  He would leave them alone.  It only fueled the fires of his hatred and desire for more land, more power.  Winston Churchill was on the other side; he wanted no part of appeasement.  He thought that England needed to fight.

What are we seeing now?

I hate war.  I can't imagine many who do.  I don't want our servicemen and women to die.  Again, I can't imagine many who do - other than the ISIS members who see the United States as their ultimate foe.

Passivity will get us nowhere, I fear.  The image of that young pilot in the cage awaiting a horrible death will stick with me.  I hope it sticks with a lot of people, because it is a sign of evil.

ISIS now has managed to infuriate the Japanese and the Jordanians.  We should be furious for what they have done to ours.  Little by little they are involving country after country; they are forcing a solidarity and in some cases, one of strange bedfellows.

We need to pray; all of you, please pray.