*Shoot to Kill

YT

The same dudes who blew up some airplanes mid-flight in NY City a few years back? -- I seem to recall there might have been some collateral damage too, some structural damage to some "towers" or something, but whatever. Anyway, those dudes? They’re the same ones who blow up pedestrians in Baghdad, and US soldiers on roadsides, and commuters in India and London and Madrid -- with car bombs and van bombs and bus bombs and train bombs and road bombs and plane bombs. What do they have against transportation? It's like a mania.

Well, they do, incidentally, blow up Jews in Israel too. Some Jews -- any Jew will do, for these doods. And not of course just in Israel. And not just Jews, while I think of it. Anyone, really. Any American, or Spaniard or Brit or Indian. Or any Moslem. Any human. These dewds think that humans are for killing. Killing on sight. Shoot to kill. And they’re right.

They are right to understand that the implacable, unappeasable blood enemy is fit for only one thing. Alas, they have no such enemy, but they are correct in understanding that such is the proper response, should they somehow encounter a serious foe. Not that they will, necessarily.

We live in interesting times. I’m doing a fair bit of reading about the US a century ago -- and I’m not the first to notice that these times are like those. Telephones and gramophones and automobiles and electricity. You have to think for a moment to see what a revolution all that was. For the first time ever, you could listen to world-class music, alone. Think how important music is today. Now imagine that if you wanted to hear music, you had to make it, or have someone make it, or go somewhere that it was being made. You see the point. My smaller point is that I emailed my son -- my son in the military, in a distant land -- and sent him this. “Beautiful common sense,” I said. “Love, Dad.”

I want my son to see it clearly. And he’s always impressed me with his common sense. Probably because it is the same as my own. I raised him to see the black and the white, as well as the shades of gray. And he does. The application here, not just for him but for every non-insane person, is that self-defense is an inalienable right. When faced with hitlers, you kill them. Yes, I did say that we can do business with some hitlers. No contradiction. The hitlers who are declared? -- who are marching? -- who’ve heated up the ovens? These hitlers need killing. The one’s who only write books about their struggle ... well, we live in a world where we cannot conquer every evil.

So last year the mohammadans tried to take yet another country, Lebanon. They used it as a launching pad to attack Israel. Reports had it that Iran was behind it, and of course Syria. Well, it’s only Jews. Who are the Jews, to live in Israel? Put ’em on Madagascar ... or Madagasovens. Tee hee.

No.

We’ve been here before, some number of times. Invasions and Intifadas, Pearl Harbors and 9/11s. Sometimes we realize that the stand we take must be a war footing. Sometimes we just play at it. But challenges must be responded to, no matter the effect on gas prices. I’ll pay the price, and gladly, if paying more for the oil will buy me some more blood. The blood of the enemy. Because the enemy, who assassinates our troops and then hides among civilians … well, Ralph Peters says it better than I could:

“Those who wear civilian clothes to ambush soldiers or collect intelligence are assassins and spies -- beyond the pale of law.

“Traditionally, those who masquerade as civilians in order to kill legal combatants have been executed promptly, without trial. ...

“Consider today's norm: A terrorist in civilian clothes can explode an IED, killing and maiming American troops or innocent civilians, then demand humane treatment if captured - and the media will step in as his champion. A disguised insurgent can shoot his rockets, throw his grenades, empty his magazines, kill and wound our troops, then, out of ammo, raise his hands and demand three hots and a cot while he invents tales of abuse.”

Yes, that just about sums the matter up. War is too the answer. Yes, it most certainly is. The days when armies arrayed in gaily hued uniforms lined up in neat rows and discharged rounds at each other in ordered volleys -- gone. The days when armies wore uniforms -- gone. We have been dragged back into barbarism -- or rather we are met by a barbarous foe, who needs to be treated in kind. The Hamdan Five of the Supreme Court have made the matter very clear for us. The lesson we must draw from their ruling isn’t that terrorists need civilian justice. They need military justice, but on the battlefield. Kill them. Kill them.

Kill them. Because they are exactly the same people who executed a one-way flight into New York City to such dazzling effect some handful of summers ago. Remember? Magnificent, wasn't it. Like Hollywood special effects or something. Surreal. Remember? Almost like a dream. And they are still weaving their dreams, these terrorists -- not the same individuals, but the same people. I suggest a rude awaking for them, from this dream. I suggest we send swift messengers to whistle through their skulls and usher them into the more permanent reality that they call Paradise and we call Hell. Kill them. So to my son, should he find himself on the blunt end of a rifle with vermin in his sights, I implore him to kill the enemy. Save our lives. Save civilization.

Frightening, isn’t it, to hear a loving father say such a thing. But we have not saved the world from tyranny time and again, that we may now fall beneath the sandals of the Bedouin. We have not received that torch of freedom -- lit at so dear a price by distant founders, and handed on along an unbroken line of patriots down to our very fathers and grandfathers -- that we should now stand idle and let its flame blow out. There is too much darkness in the world.

And it is the young men who will save us -- under wise leadership, if we are blessed to have it. It is the blood of our sons, as it was of our fathers, that will preserve Liberty. The blood of our sons, and more, their courage and fierce violence. So I have not sent off my son to die. He volunteered, and the unspoken part of it is that he volunteered to kill. May God speed him to this end, and bless his safe return. Because I hope someday to have grandchildren, and it is my own son who will make their world a place of peace and safety, in honor. So yes, son, shoot to kill. And sleep well for it.

Love,

Dad