Journalist James Foley executed by ISIS

Haven't witnessed a meltdown of this magnitude since you collapsed in a ball and wet yourself while throwing a tantrum regarding ERA.

 

You're so smart!

You're the smartest one here!

 

I feel terrible for this guy, and for his family.

And, I understand that on a board of journalists/former journalists, this may hit closer to home for some than other atrocities.

But ISIS has been cutting off heads for months. There really is something disturbing about the terror of a group like ISIS only becoming real when they cut off the head of an American journalist.

And there is something disturbing about the idea that the press suddenly questions how there actions might encourage behavior only when a journalist is murdered.

It's disturbing that years long media blackouts can be enforced to try and save a journalist's life, when the media does not hold back other stories, that may cost lives, for years, when the lives in danger are not journalists.

And, I'm not calling for this video to be shown on the nightly news, but the efforts -- and not just here -- to suppress access to the video is also disturbing.

We have museums dedicated ensuring people do not forget the atrocities of the Holocaust. It seems like we do not want to document, or acknowledge, the depravity of Islamist groups.

 

Baron Scicluna and old_tony have the right ideas here.

And I'll just add my two cents worth, which, I'm sure is about all it would be worth to some.

I'll go ahead and say it: We're not tired of Iraq. We're tired of Islam.

And, I'llgo ahead and say it: I don't get it. How these poor excuses for people think their beloved religion is ever going to gain a true foothold and be practiced willingly and with meaning and power, when it offers nothing but living limited lives, with the narrowest world view possible and in fear of, well, seemingly anything, while always making a public show of all the worst degenerative-ness of it, is beyond me.

The way people say "Fuck cancer" around here? That's the reaction -- the only reaction -- that these ISIS idiots are going to engender in the U.S. with acts like this.

YF: I don't think this sort of disturbance and outrage here only happened because Foley's a journalist. I think this would have happened yesterday, except that we were waiting for actual confirmation of both his identity and the legitimacy of the video. If you'll remember, this thread (or another similar one) was actually started yesterday, and when I looked at it, I remember being surprised that it had been viewed more than 100 times without a single comment, but those were the reasons, I think.

Well, that, and what in the world do you really say about something like this, anyway?

Honestly, it's so kind-of-pointlessly shocking and terrorizing, and yet, it seems so apparently damned normal to these pieces of shit (who, I'd be amused if it wasn't so disgusting, never have the guts to show their faces while they're doing it), that it's just about beyond comprehension for any decent person.

 

ISIS has been cutting off heads every single day for months. This is not hyperbole. This is fact.

They display the heads in town. Put them on sticks. Set them atop fence posts. Pose their young children holding heads.

They've been capturing, and raping women daily.

Posting a thread about any of these atrocities would have elicited yawns here at best. More likely, the poster would have been accused of being an Islamaphobe and/or troll. The thread would have withered on the vine, or been locked.

But, an American journalist is murdered, and it's major news, and folks are outraged. (But, not outraged enough to actually confront how evil these folks are.)

 

We're tired.

 

If it all becomes too much to bear the "Game of Thrones" thread is down the hall.

 

How authentic do you think most of the photos out there are?

I'm not being an ISIS sympathizer whatsoever.

I'm honestly wondering: How authentic do you think most of the photos floating around the Internet are?

 

And I don't think, YF, that this is of interest because Foley was a journalist, but because he was an American.

I'm sure you read the story a few weeks ago about how the United States doesn't negotiate for hostages with al Qaeda, and thus Americans are rarely executed by them any more. Terrorists simply leave Americans alone for the most part. Nothing to gain. And, sadly, we don't care as much then.

 

Sorry for the triple post, but NYT op-ed today, "Who Will Stand Up for the Christians?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/opinion/ronald-lauder-who-will-stand-up-for-the-christians.html?_r=0

 

Why don't you be specific about what sort of "confrontation" you're advocating here, instead of just whining in generalities about not doing enough.

Because the notion that we've done nothing to confront ISIS is nonsense. We're now conducting Air Strikes and bombing campaigns against ISIS, in fact Obama authorizing those strikes is apparently what motivated Foley's execution. Appears to me that we are trying to do whatever we can do short of sending the troops back in to oppose this group.

So what more, specifically, are you advocating here? Do you suggest we re-invade Iraq and start up a new mid east ground war? If so, come out and say it. But, in doing so, you ought to be prepared to answer other questions about how we're gonna get the American people to support it, and how we're gonna pay for it (in case you weren't aware, we no longer have the same economic reserves for it that we did back in 01-03 when we started up the last wars over there).

 

If we just send in the troops and kill enough of them, we can convince the crazy Muslims that their religion is wrong and ours is right.

If only we weren't so tired ...