This is not a strategy for victory. It’s a terror tactic. And it never stopped the Allied march
to Tokyo during the Second World War.
Actions like the above picture, of a Japanese soldier about
to decapitate an Australian one, Leonard Siffleet, only compel the Western World to resolve the
conflict.
Eyewitness accounts say the Japanese officer cut off Siffleet's head with one fell swoop of his sword,[i]
making the jidhadist carrying out a similar deed, whether it was against James
Foley or Steven Sotloff, look like an amateur butcher.
Without question, the pictures and videos scare the bejesus
out of people, which is the intent.
But similar pictures never stopped the U.S. military from crushing
another, including a ragged band of terrorists.[ii]
The Western World, the United States in particular, handles
suicidal enemies the only way it knows – they kill them. The West is often slow to respond to
national security crises. But in
time, as an enemy shows its brutality, it develops a strategy that unleashes far
more destruction than the enemy ever imagined it could suffer.
So terrorists, take note. You may win a few opening rounds with your shock and awe of
slicing off heads, but you’ll lose the most critical one – the last. You’ll pay a price you never
considered.
Update: One diligent reader pointed out that the picture's copyright is held by the Australian War Memorial. I checked the Memorial's website and learned the picture is in the public domain. Click this url if you're curious -- http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/101099/
Update: One diligent reader pointed out that the picture's copyright is held by the Australian War Memorial. I checked the Memorial's website and learned the picture is in the public domain. Click this url if you're curious -- http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/101099/
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