I sort of
expected that. That the Jordanian pilot
was already dead I mean. It’s not that
complicated to provide proof of life, yet ISIS kept not doing it. The burning to death did surprise me
though. You’d think the rage caused by
the beheadings would clue them in to the likely reaction of people to that sort
of thing. (And yes, burning someone to
death IS worse.)
They’ve also
destroyed any good faith attempts at negotiating hostage exchanges – or ransoms,
with anyone. The “experts” (whoever
they are) seem to be indicating that the pilot, Muadh al-Kasasbeh, was actually
burned alive on January 3rd.
This is well before his name showed up in conjunction with any ransom or
exchange proposals. Also let us not
forget that the same seemed to be true with Kenji Goto, the Japanese journalist
who was most recently beheaded. This was
also well in advance of the ransom demands.
There is, I
suppose, the remote possibility that all this was done to deliberately burn
bridges, but that strikes me as unlikely.
Any bridges are indeed now ash. I
suspect that the leaders simply cannot or do not wish to control the army they
built with enough authority to keep prisoners alive. Under those circumstances that would make
the videos little more than spin control.
Perhaps it’s a desperate attempt to say “yeah- I meant to do that.” to their own people as much as to the rest of
the world. If nothing else, they’ve got
to LOOK like they are in control.
This would,
if true, indicate a lack of discipline within the ISIS ranks, which would be
good, though I would hesitate to call it even a “silver lining.” But it might be usable militarily and/or politically. I
hope.
Jordan is
apparently now planning to execute several ISIS prisoners in retaliation. (Probably
before you read this.) I’m not sure what
good it does to execute a failed suicide bomber. On the other hand I’m not sure what good it
does to keep her alive. I don’t know who
the other prisoners are, so your guess is at least as good as mine. I will say that it strikes me that Jordan is
within its rights to do so, no matter how many liberal heads explode. Not that they are going to ask permission.
The only
thing I can conclude is that ISIS does not WANT to negotiate a peace. ISIS wants to conquer all the Muslim nations
and destroy or enslave all the others.
Obama CANNOT wrap his head around that. God help us all.
