Rules Of Engagement

 

“Despite what your mamma told you, violence does solve problems.” – SO2 Ryan Job USN (SEAL)

 I’m a conflicted man today, probably have been conflicted for many years, but today more so. And that confliction grows stronger every day.

Last week, 15 Syrian soldiers and 1 former United States Army Ranger turned humanitarian aid worker, were beheaded in Iraq. Peter Kassig had retired from the US Army some years ago and had now turned in his weapons and swapped them for aid and care packages for the needy in Iraq, a noble act indeed. Yet he was captured by the terrorist group ISIS and  beheaded as a threat to the US and the West, that ISIS will find us all and kill all the infidels.

I watched this video, I have seen quite a few, not because I am a blood thirsty lunatic, but because I want to see what kind of a man can do this to another human being. The trouble is, for most of these pictures and videos, the pictured “man”, known only as “Jihadi John”, always wears a balaclava covering his head. This extremely tough individual, who isn’t afraid of anything, is most certainly afraid of being identified. Probably because he’s from London. He speaks with a thick London accent and no doubt has family in the UK that he would be concerned for their welfare if he was identified. Unfortunately for “John”, the FBI has recently announced that they know who he is and that his days are numbered. And I for one will be happy when that day comes.

I guess this is where my confliction starts to creep in though.

I want this man dead. The hate he preaches and the violence he spread is nothing short of evil in it’s purest form. But if we kill this man, does that make us any better than him?

We killed the evil tyrant on the left, only to have the maniac on the right bring the fight to our door steps in the US on September 11, 2001 and Bali on October 12, 2002. It seems, once you knock off one lunatic mad man, another is eager to step up and take his place. (Not that “John” is necessarily the next mad man, but he’s definitely the “face” of evil right now). So does killing these “people” solve the problem? And if it doesn’t, how do we stop them from killing? How do we stop this evil?

I spent nearly 13 years in the Australian Army Resreve. 2 years of that was full time service, unfortunately i didn’t have the opportunity to serve overseas, but as a result I strongly support our boys and what they are doing over in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan. Every time and Aussie Digger makes the ultimate sacrifice, I feel it deeply, it saddens me no end.

It really saddens me to think that we could be losing the battle to people that don’t cherish life as much as we do, therefore their reigns of terror will just continue. So how do we stop these people? Well that’s where my conflictions lie I guess.

On one hand I’d love to just drop nukes all over those countries wiping out everything, bad guys, civilians, everything and make a parking lot of the desert. But that’s a stupid answer and makes me no better than the terrorists. On the other hand I want our guys to go in and strategically take out all the leaders of these evil organisations and have all the terror groups collapse. But this doesn’t work either. On another hand we could just leave, but we know that will just make it easier for the terrorist to train, it will allow them to continue to persecute and exterminate their own people and it’s just not the right move.

So how do we stop those people?

I don’t know, I don’t have the answers. I wish I did. All I can do is continue to support our troops, support our allies and hope that one day, really soon, these animals will wake up to themselves and we can all just get along.

It would be nice to live in a world without fear.