On Monday, I read about a Syrian woman who was accused by ISIS of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning. The barbarians carried out the punishment until they thought she was dead. She miraculously survived and attempted to flee. As one of the savages turned to shoot her, an Islamist jurist intervened and declared that it was God’s will and let her go. This was an anomaly.
On Tuesday, I read about a Syrian man that ISIS threw off the roof of a building for being a homosexual. He too survived his initial punishment. But rather than invoke God’s will, the cheering mob of barbarians waiting for him on the ground proceeded to stone him to death.
Shortly thereafter, we learned that ISIS burned alive the Jordanian pilot being held captive. And while the civilized world experienced feelings of disgust, sadness, and anger, the animals responsible for the atrocity set up movie screens across the city for cheering crowds to view and celebrate.
Civilized human beings are incapable of fathoming these atrocities. Some of us, however, are wondering why the Commander-in-Chief of the world’s policemen (formerly known as the United States military) has enabled this cancer to metastasize, and now is allowing the violence to occur over and over again with little intervention.
Where is civilized man in response to terrorist brutalities and violence not seen since the Holocaust? Michelle Obama’s reaction to the kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian girls by Boko Haram was to promote a photo of herself holding a sign with the tweet #BringBackOurGirls. ISIS found this so amusing that it photo-shopped the image and retweeted the photo with Michelle holding a sign that read #BringBackOurHumvees. (ISIS was making fun of their successful seizure of a shipment of U.S. Humvees in Iraq.)
Iraq is the country that Obama handed over to ISIS and Iran to fight over. In doing so, he abandoned the Iraqi people who had helped us win that war before he snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’ Thomas Joscelyn observed that ISIS’
mass executions of Iraqi soldiers undoubtedly helped convince Iraqi forces to retreat form the fight during the summer of 2014, when the Islamic State overran Mosul and other areas. The result was that the jihadists got stronger – until, that is, the U.S. and its allies decided they had to act.
Joscelyn observed that while Obama’s air strikes will not defeat ISIS, ISIS uses these grotesque executions to scare off coalition participants. Joscelyn also observed that the “sadistic videos” might actually backfire in terms of garnering support for their cause.
But is it possible that these videos -- of beheadings, stonings, tossing people off of buildings, and burning prisoners alive -- will have an anesthetic effect as well? Will those of us in the civilized world become numb to these horrific acts and human suffering that the wicked cause?
For decades after the Holocaust the phrase “Never again!” emanated from the lips of people of nations all over the world. Seventy years after the liberation of Auschwitz, cries of “Go back to the Ovens!” “Hitler was right!” and “Death to Jews!” are commonplace on the streets of the world’s most civilized cities from London and Paris to Sydney and New York.
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