This is hearbreaking:
An Iraqi militant group has beheaded its South Korean hostage, Al-Jazeera television reported Tuesday. The South Korean foreign ministry issued a statement confirming the report.
Kim's body was found by the U.S. military between Baghdad and Fallujah, west of the capital, at 5:20 p.m. Iraq time, said South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong-kil.
The South Korean embassy in Bagdad confirmed that the body was Kim by studying a picture of the remains it received by e-mail, Shin said.
"It breaks our heart that we have to announce this unfortunate news," he said.Posted by Clifton at June 22, 2004 12:30 PM | TrackBack
Christ have mercy...
Can any civilian think that staying in the middle east is a good idea anymore? If I had family there I would be getting their asses home RIGHT NOW!
I don't care if that means the "terrorists win", I want my family more.
How can we fight this? I am believing more and more that bombs and tanks are not the answer...such warfare cannot be won - I am reminded of the drug wars, something for which I am convinced can only be won on a more personal level.
Is it possible that instead of fighting this with guns that a more intelligent means of fighting could be more covert, more personal, and more soothing (dare I say?) What if we could do something to win the hearts and minds of these people who hate us so? Is there something we could do?
I'm not coming from a so-called "bleeding heart liberal/pacifist" perspective, but rather seriously wondering if our present policy will not make things worse.
Either way, may Kim's memory be eternal.
Posted by: jamesofthenorthwest at June 22, 2004 01:29 PMAll that being said, there is a big part of me that thinks of the video of Berg and this most recent horrific news and would like very much to see the vermin responsible wiped off the surface of the planet.
Posted by: jamesofthenorthwest at June 22, 2004 01:33 PMJames OTN:
Truly, the only real answer is the conversion of the hearts, souls, mind and strength of these terrorists to the holy Faith of Orthodoxy.
But that would be asking people to knowingly and willingly give themselves up for certain torture and execution as overt missionaries of the Gospel. I doubt the Iraqi interim government or the U. S. provisional authority would allow that.
Posted by: Clifton D. Healy at June 22, 2004 02:17 PMIf these barbaric idiots who proclaim themselves to be doing this in the name of Islam are so proud of their actions, then why don't they take off their masks and show their own faces? Or in reality are they simply ashamed and know they are breaking the law of Islam while commiting these horrendous beheadings to satisfy their own pathetic and sick sense of their so-called religion?
Posted by: M Hirsch at June 23, 2004 02:03 AMI have some sympathy for James's comment. Years ago, when I saw things differently, I might have agreed with him. Now I have to disagree strongly. The answer is not to turn tail and run. What the Nazis did was at least as bad as what the Islamic terrorists are doing. For that matter, what the Japanese did prior to and during WWII was at least as bad. (Ever hear of the Rape of Nanking? If you haven't, there's a book by that name that will tell you about it.) The only reason we are not now subject to Nazi or Imperial Japanese rule ourselves, with a continuation of the evils they perpetrated, is because our forebears fought them. Although that fighting entailed tremendous sacrifice by those who went before us, we -- and Germany and Japan -- are living in freedom as a result. I think the statement we keep hearing from the left, to the effect that no country every was made free or safe through war, is one of the vilest lies out there.
Posted by: RL at June 26, 2004 03:07 PM