“Without these videos and photos and firsthand experience, you can’t really tell the world how bad it might be.” – James Foley
So I watched the video of the American Journalist, James Foley, being beheaded.
It isn’t a quick slice or an instant death. The killer, a member of the terrorist group ISIL, draws a knife and saws away at the neck until the head breaks away. Kneeling in an orange outfit with a shaved head, the victim is helpless.
Foley was a journalist who reported in dangerous areas to ensure the world could see the worst of humanity. He succeeded in finding a demonstration of evil, if that was his goal. He was a hostage for two years and was perhaps brainwashed at some point.
I say this because of the way he delivers the speech. It is performed with such confidence and clarity that it is fair to say he has been made to believe certain things. The sentences are personal; he tells his brother to smarten up and leave the army, to think about the lives he’s destroying. “Think John,” he says.
“I died that day John, when your colleagues dropped that bomb on those people. They signed my death certificate.”
“Don’t accept compensation for my death from the same people who put the final nail in my coffin.”
“I call on my friends to rise up against my real killer, the American government,” said Foley.
“What will happen to me, is a result of your criminality.”
“I wish I could have the hope of freedom, and see my family again. But that ship has sailed. I guess all in all, I wish I wasn’t American.”
To speak so clearly under the promise of death is a trait we cannot understand. The words were no doubt chosen by the terrorists, but they hauntingly feel like his own.
His captors and killers murder as though buying groceries from the local supermarket. They speak as though everyone is accepting their vision and soon the world will follow. They feel no remorse. There is no doubt that rape, torture and death are the norm for such an organisation, as peace would create confusion in their ranks. The killer had an English accent.
President Obama, in his address, said that these men terrorise their neighbours whilst calling for an end to the bombings.
They want, they kill, they scare, they intimidate and they attempt to control a country. And they will never stop.
I saw one death. They’ve completed thousands.
The Pentagon say that the enemy’s morale is suffering and their capacity has been damaged. But as long as they have hostages (they’ve already threatened to kill journalist Steven Sotloff) and the ability to broadcast such horror, control remains.
What can we do? Turn away and not watch? People will still die.
Continue to bomb? People will still die.
This is the problem with war. It never completely ends. Many, like the ISIL, don’t want an end. They attack American journalists because they know it sends ripples across the world. They have plans to take over Kuwait, Lebanon and Israel.
They are better armed, trained and funded than any other recent threat. The air strikes are a thorn in their side, so they will execute until the bombs stop.
“The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision,” were the final words of the killer as he held Sotloff by the collar. Unfortunately, there is no decision that can change their minds. They are men of destruction.
It is said that all empires are destroyed from within. A new tactic must be devised. Americans, our allies, always go with the big gun show. Don’t discount the strength of the journalists, and the ability of infiltration. Awareness has grown, and now we wait, nervously, to see what happens next.
Chris Sutton
