How do you justify a world where humanitarian workers; engineers that are trying to rebuild a devastated nation; truck drivers that bring foods, medicines, and the other necessary materials for rebuilding, are beheaded for their concern?
When I think of beheading it brings to mind images of the French guillotine, or the English headsman's block. It brings to mind people that have been tried and convicted of horrific crimes, such as treason, there can be no greater betrayal. Beheading is a casually brutal, practical way of taking care of criminals. You don't have to worry that they will survive it. It won't be messy, in terms of dispatching them in a timely manner. Without a head you can't live. Fairly quick and the problem no longer exists. It's a time-honored way of executing people that has been abolished in our times. But, I digress. Have you seen the videos that are making the rounds of the Internet: of the be heading's that are taking place in Iraq as I write?
If you answered no, that you haven't seen any of them I have two things to say to you. One 'you lucky bastard', two 'don't be a coward'. Being an ostrich is convenient and it's certainly more comfortable. Does burying our heads in the sand teach us anything? We are one of the most sheltered nations in the world. Our government closely monitors what we do and don't see. Their spin-doctors are masters of their art. Thank God for the Internet. At least those of us that want an unbiased view of global matters can find it if we dig deeply enough. Google rocks! What is our government doing that they don't want us to know about: or not doing as the case may be. An attempt on their part to hide total incompetence?
The latest be headings were of two American's! They were kidnapped from their apartment building in the middle of Baghdad! Yet, the Bush administration assures us that we are making daily progress in Iraq. That we are giving Iraqis our American dream-- in the midst of a region that is fraught with religious fanaticism. The administration mentions the dead soldiers and the beheaded civilians as 'proof' that we are steadily making gains. I'm not buying it.
The only purpose of government is to provide stability and staunch chaos. We kicked out their government and left an entire nation in shambles. Rather than reevaluating what his previous decisions have brought our nation to Mr. Bush continues to bring stupid excuses to the table. Rather than reevaluating-- and coming up with a positive model of reconstruction-- Bush continues to pour one bad idea after the other. Daily, we are force fed Bush's fantastical reasons for 'staying the course'. A 'course' that has proved illogical, and nonsensical. Proved by the dead bodies of United States soldiers; proved by dead bodies of Iraqi civilians. Proved by the videos of civilians loosing their heads—literally.
Would you--or could you--reason with a rabid dog? No, you can't. What is the protocol for dealing with a rabid animal of any species? First you isolate it. Then you kill it, quickly, without malice, as a protective measure.
I'm going to tell you what I saw the other night. I admit to sharing in the cowardice that seems pervasive in our society. I did NOT want to see anyone getting beheaded--yuck. Can you believe that crap? I actually thought 'yuck' to myself. Could I have been any shallower?
I went to a website that is good at giving unbiased reporting on Iraqi issues. I clicked on a link to another report or article, I thought. As I clicked on the link the phone rang, it was my husband. I got up to answer the phone and get another cup of coffee. I stood in the kitchen making my coffee and talking to my husband for a few minutes, then hung up and went back to the computer desk.
Guess what? It wasn't an article. Horrified, I watched Mr. Armstrong get his head sawed off. Sawed off--not chopped off. Nothing that humane and merciful. The man standing behind him had a knife that was six to eight inches long. He was SAWING the blade back and forth across Mr. Armstrong's throat.
How long did it take? I don't know; my throat seized up and my breath seemed to freeze in my chest as I watched in horror. The sound was turned up just loud enough to hear if you were at the computer. The noises issuing from the speakers made my blood curdle. Can you image the noise that pours from a body in agonizing pain: yet can't scream because its throat is ruined? I don't have to imagine any longer. In the final moments of a life that ends in that manner the body spasms endlessly in protest. Air that is greedily—hopelessly--sucked into the lungs through that bloody hole is expelled in a nasally squeal that sounds like a pig protesting it's fate as dinner pork chops.
Like rabies insanity isn't curable. Religious insanity is even more destructive and vile than rabies. With rabies you have to be bitten to catch the disease. With religious insanity—fanaticism--it needs only a mind that is vulnerable. A fertile field, ready to be plowed by life's innumerable insults, then sown with the evil seeds of a diseased mind. I wonder if it's ever occurred to any of those espoused religious warriors that God--be it the Islamic God or the Christian God-- doesn't need their help. He's capable of taking care of things in his own way and time. I doubt it; the landscape of insanity doesn't promote thought.
Amid these exhibitions of insanity instead of simply shooting the rabid dog or getting away from it we are STILL choking down our daily meals of fantasy—provided in abundance by Mr. Bush.
Who's more insane? Religious fanatics, or American's that continue to dine on Mr. Bush's fantasy's?
E.A. Henson
October 1, 2004
Talieson.com