Kill al-Qaeda

Dave at Garfield Ridge tells about al-Qaeda's bombing in Jordan, but puts it into context with al-Qaeda's ontology:

Our enemy doesn't care who you are, what country you came from, what your position on the Iraq War is, or what God you pray to. They will kill you just the same, for no reason other than they feel like it.

But hey, aren't we supposed to empathize with these murderers? You know, try to understand where they're coming from?

Honestly, I'm long since tired of concerning myself where these bastards come from. All I care about is where we must send them.

Click over to Dave's site to see a fantastic illustration of just where Dave would like to send al-Qaeda. I'll give you a hint: it's much worse than the Paris suburbs.

In the West, it is fairly common for people, regardless of political bent, to somewhat recoil from thought of deliberately pursuing a people specifically to kill them. We've come a long way since the medieval times of stringing people up for religious beliefs, and quite contrary to guys like Michael Moore, Westerners (even Americans!) don't enjoy acts of violence all that much. This isn't an argument to say that acts of violence don't occur in the West (a discourse on human nature is way beyond the scope of this post), but I remember sitting in a class on the Civil War in college, and the discussion was heated after our prof quoted these words by General Sherman:

I would make this war as severe as possible, and show no symptoms of tiring till the South begs for mercy.

and

War is the remedy our enemies have chosen, and I say give them all they want.

...and when General "Stonewall" Jackson uttered these words when a subordinate suggested that they let the routed Union troops flee:

Kill them all.

These quotes are heartfelt and utterly brutal. As mutual prosecutors of a war that would pit brother against brother, these men threw off the gloves and fought until the the other dropped. The Civil War would rival the greatest wars in history not necessary in numbers lost, but in the ruthlessness with which each side fought the other.

Most 21st Century people look at these as words and see them as a product of a less sophisticated, unnuanced, and more barbaric time. Of course these men responded in such ways, they say, they had yet to experiece Ghandi, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. Their non-violent ways showed us the possibilities of fighting for the oppressed without the raising of arms.

While the world was clearly the better for aforementioned men and women of peace, it doesn't necessarily mean that it pointed to a new way to resolved conflict that always works. The question posed to my Civil War class, after they mulled the murderous words of two of the greatest Civil War Generals, was, "Would slavery have been put to death without the brutality of General Sherman?" No one could argue pursuasively in the affirmative.

Civilized Western society is what we are trying to preserve with our war on terror. I have no qualms in determining that the war should be prosecuted as brutually and horribly as possible. Our forefathers fought each other without mercy, and it is rather bizarre that we would restrain ourselves against a far more murderous and souless enemy that is restrained only by capability, not mercy. This is precisely why I do not have much sympathy when it comes to issues like torturing prisoners. I'm certainly not "pro-torture", as I'm sure many would label me, but I can't say that I find myself weeping for our "lost" souls when it does happen. War certainly is hell, and there is no way to fight it humanely. We've tried, only to be left with situations like Fallujah, where our "humanity" won out and we pulled out, only to have to lose more men to take it again.

So, I'll say it clear and say it loud. Al-Qaeda needs to be destroyed, and they have chosen to fight it out in Iraq. This is where their graveyard should be dug, and the more severely we deal with them now, the less we will have to deal with in the future. Unfortunately, I don't think that we as a people are ready for this kind of war. There is a substantial portion of the population that believes this war doesn't really exist, but in our own minds. Combine them with a the fact that there is also a growing and large number of people that believe this war needs to be fought, but thin there no reason for it to be "messy."

I don't think, in war, you can have your cake and eat it. I'm not worried about losing this war, I'm worried that we are going to see another massive attack on Western soil again before it is over. Without aggressively dealing with al-Qaeda, we are giving them time to hit us again. The longer they live, the likelihood of another September 11th or worse increases. When that happens, I'm sure there will be a lot less folks clammoring for a "humane" end to this fight.

Sadly, it is highly probable that it will take a lot of dead people on our side to convince them of this harsh fact.