The issue is the emotions of after-the-fact vengeance versus the need for a sane approach to turmoil in the Middle East. Since I'm a military veteran antiwar activist who, with many colleagues, vehemently opposed the Iraq War even before the shock and awe invasion, I would not have wanted my life to in any way be a casus belli for continuing an insane vengeance cycle. Whether stupid or delusional on my part, any risk I took traveling in Anbar Province was in the cause of stopping war.
James Foley says he started out on the anti-war side vis--vis the Iraq War. I presume he felt very differently than me, and I can't know how he would have felt about his death becoming the casus belli it has become. In the Medill interview, he seems to understand as an embedded journalist he was part of a partisan, war-making unit -- not an independent, "objective" individual. He seems to have fully understood the risks to his mortality from what he was doing. It's not accurate to characterize him as "innocent." US soldiers have beheaded people. Our allies in Syria just beheaded a half dozen men.
Was James Foley a combatant? No. But neither was he a neutral observer. The world is still stunned by the barbaric Sunni onslaught out of Syria that went through Iraq's barren Anbar Province like a vengeful firestorm. Anyone entering such a chaotic madhouse of hatred and resentment for Americans had to understand how incredibly high the risks were. This was a case of people pushed so far their arsenal is suicidal martyrs as bomb delivery devices and psychopathic homicide as a weapon of terror. When people get to the point death is their friend, it's hard to bring them to heel. The people of Iraq and Syria who want a sane life need to put their house in order. The last thing they need is more US provocation to stir the place up.
In this insane climate of revenge, James Foley was apparently sold by a group that held him in Syria to an ISIL element in Iraq. It seems clear he was to be another variety of weapon in the mad vengeance cycle against America. How better to infuriate and instill a sense of dis-empowerment in the hearts and minds of decadent Americans far, far away in their comfortable homes than to show this strong, brave man's execution on the huge plasma TV screens across America. It would be the perfect visual counter to the incessant imagery of exceptional power Americans thrived on in their inner world. Of course, they didn't realize the image would be censored for everyone except those creative and perverse enough to locate it on line.
No one said it better than Susan Sontag following the horrors of the attack on the Trade Towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. "By all means let's mourn together, but let's not be stupid together." She was pilloried for saying that. Then our leaders took us like sheep to the slaughter into an invasion and occupation of Iraq that has led directly to the unholy fury we're no witnessing in eastern Iraq. A debacle that keeps on giving.
Let's haul Sontag down from the societal stocks she was pilloried on and resurrect the profound intelligence of her mind so we can avoid being "stupid together" again and, in the process, make things even worse than they are.
We can only hope the courageous James Foley who felt compassion for the victims of war would not want his death to be used for even more stupidity.
James Foley says he started out on the anti-war side vis--vis the Iraq War. I presume he felt very differently than me, and I can't know how he would have felt about his death becoming the casus belli it has become. In the Medill interview, he seems to understand as an embedded journalist he was part of a partisan, war-making unit -- not an independent, "objective" individual. He seems to have fully understood the risks to his mortality from what he was doing. It's not accurate to characterize him as "innocent." US soldiers have beheaded people. Our allies in Syria just beheaded a half dozen men.
Was James Foley a combatant? No. But neither was he a neutral observer. The world is still stunned by the barbaric Sunni onslaught out of Syria that went through Iraq's barren Anbar Province like a vengeful firestorm. Anyone entering such a chaotic madhouse of hatred and resentment for Americans had to understand how incredibly high the risks were. This was a case of people pushed so far their arsenal is suicidal martyrs as bomb delivery devices and psychopathic homicide as a weapon of terror. When people get to the point death is their friend, it's hard to bring them to heel. The people of Iraq and Syria who want a sane life need to put their house in order. The last thing they need is more US provocation to stir the place up.
In this insane climate of revenge, James Foley was apparently sold by a group that held him in Syria to an ISIL element in Iraq. It seems clear he was to be another variety of weapon in the mad vengeance cycle against America. How better to infuriate and instill a sense of dis-empowerment in the hearts and minds of decadent Americans far, far away in their comfortable homes than to show this strong, brave man's execution on the huge plasma TV screens across America. It would be the perfect visual counter to the incessant imagery of exceptional power Americans thrived on in their inner world. Of course, they didn't realize the image would be censored for everyone except those creative and perverse enough to locate it on line.
Let's haul Sontag down from the societal stocks she was pilloried on and resurrect the profound intelligence of her mind so we can avoid being "stupid together" again and, in the process, make things even worse than they are.
We can only hope the courageous James Foley who felt compassion for the victims of war would not want his death to be used for even more stupidity.
* James Foley interview:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3SKu0M_g_4#t=99 ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3SKu0M_g_4#t=99 )
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