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At 08:28 04-10-14 -0400, Louis Proyect via Marxism wrote:
>
>The fucking ISIS is 10 times worse than the Khmer Rouge. They just
>beheaded a British cab driver named Alan Henning who had joined a
>caravan delivering medicine
No shit! Not just him, but I believe every high-profile beheading video
released by ISIS or their forerunners (which "mainstream" al-Q'aida, to
their credit, never endorsed) has been of a totally innocent civilian
involved in reporting from or providing aid in areas of suffering.
Absolutely no attempt to "punish" the guilty (even if beheading were an
acceptable punishment for war criminals), but designed to shock and polarize
-- successfully! -- amounting to nothing less than "terrorism," a term I
very much avoid using.
Now, I understand all the reasons to oppose or question the motivations of
the U.S. bombing campaign. But when I hear something like "Obama never even
tried to negotiate with ISIS and see what their legitimate grievances are,"
I just shake my head in dismay. Seldom would I defend Obama et. al. against
"unfair criticism" but that would have to be one. If anyone were to have
given Obama a credible excuse to exercise military power, ISIS has succeeded.
In the case of the second American recently beheaded, Steven Sotloff, even I
had thought that ISIS would show some moderation after the conciliatory,
almost grovelling message by his mother, pointing out her son's pursuit in
reporting on the suffering of Muslims: her pleas were totally ignored. I'm
sure that one could find similar documentation for each of these beheading
victims, but here is the last recorded interview of James Foley, beheaded by
ISIS in August after having been captured (by whom isn't clear) in 2012. A
previous post on this list indirectly pointed to this 4 minute video which
is especially worth watching by anyone who might be imagining that there
could have been a reasonable justification for his capture, let alone
beheading.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KOckTZHiK20
And if all that isn't enough, you might have noticed a few links (depending
on YouTube's random choices) to "related videos" denouncing the beheading
video as a "fake!" For the conspiratorial left/right, being "anti-war" means
defying reason to whatever extent necessary. Note that they don't try to
defend ISIS which they also claim was created by the US (etc. etc.) but
rather assert that the whole scenario has been staged-managed (just like the
collapse of the World Trade Center!). If you search you can find dozens
(actually it says "about 11,400 results") conspiracist claims which
conveniently deny ISIS's crime:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=James+Foley+fake
- Jeff
>http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c5e4b7cd3b6f402fbf0e96afdf54d8a1/british-hostage-alan-henning-aimed-help-syrians
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