One of the lesser-discussed elements of the ground fight in occupied Iraq is the certainty among coalition soldiers that they do not want to be captured by the insurgency. They know that if they get in a brawl their options are to stand and fight, or bug out to better terrain. Surrender is not an option.
They do this because they know their foe adheres to no laws of warfare, accepts no constraints of civilization – even as the soldiers and Marines themselves walk and work among the citizens of Iraq, trying to assure them, as best they can, of civilization’s benefits.
With that in the back of my mind, I read with some interest the story of the Palestinian prison in Jericho invested by the Israeli army. Six members of a terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) were held there, supervised by British and American jailers in a deal brokered between those countries, the PA and Israel.
One of those prisoners, Ahmed Saadat, is believed to have ordered the assassination of an Israeli politician. Following long-standing complaints from the British side about security and other conditions at the prison, the British and the Americans ultimately withdrew and PA chairman Mahmood Abbas decided to release the six in contravention of the previous PA guarantees. This in turn resulted in the Israelis moving in.
Saadat and other vowed to fight to the death against the Israeli provocation, telling Al-Jazeera, “We are not going to surrender. We are going to face our destiny with courage,” before surrendering unharmed last night.
Proving once again that while terrorist leaders can be flagrantly extravagant with other people’s lives, they tend to be fastidiously parsimonious with their own. Whether or not the willingness of PFLP leadership to throw themselves upon the mercies of the IDF – consider if the roles were reversed – also speaks to the demerits of fashionable cultural relativism, I leave to you.
It was a very real pleasure to read that last paragraph…it feels so good when you hit dead center with that pen (er, keyboard) of yours.
Well said is an understatement.
I just want to say (as a loyal lurker, brought here through Chapomatic) that the turn of a phrase in the last paragraph was magnificent! “… can be flaggrantly extravagant with other people’s lives, they tend to be fastidiously parsimonious with their own.”
As the guys in the Guiness commercial say… “Brilliant!”
Thank you for entertaining me and keeping the synaptic pathways open and cleared for landing.
John V.
“Proving once again that while terrorist leaders can be flagrantly extravagant with other people?
“Proving once again that while terrorist leaders can be flagrantly extravagant with other people’s lives, they tend to be fastidiously parsimonious with their own.” Perhaps the cartoon portraing the “prophet” stating they are out of virgins has been taken to heart by the terrorists, after all I’m sure they would have the insiders info on that.
Said terrorist leaders are keen observers of human nature. The extreme value they place on their own lives is perfectly in keeping with the example set by their mentors, the Salafist mullahs, who are themselves oddly reluctant to put their faith to the test.
One can fondly hope the members of both groups are greeted at the entrance to Paradise with a phrase from two millennia past: “Woe unto you, hypocrites…”