Our barbaric enemy slaughters our men in the most brutal fashion imaginable, booby-traps them, and then hides behind women and children. It’s like some hideous game of tag, where these savages do their dirty work and often get home free, where they are safe and untouchable. We can’t allow this to continue. AP:

U.S. forces on Tuesday recovered the bodies of two American soldiers reported captured by insurgents last week. An Iraqi defense ministry official said the men were tortured and “killed in a barbaric way.” Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for killing the soldiers, and said the successor to terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had “slaughtered” them….

The director of the Iraqi defense ministry’s operation room, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, said the bodies showed signs of having been tortured. “With great regret, they were killed in a barbaric way,” he said. The claim of responsibility was made in the name of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of five insurgent groups led by al-Qaida in Iraq. The group posted an Internet statement Monday claiming it was holding the American soldiers captive.

“We give the good news … to the Islamic nation that we have carried God’s verdict by slaughtering the two captured crusaders,” said the claim, which appeared on an Islamic militant Web site where insurgent groups regularly post statements and videos. “With God Almighty’s blessing, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer carried out the verdict of the Islamic court” calling for the soldiers’ slaying, the statement said.

The statement said the soldiers were “slaughtered,” suggesting that al-Muhajer beheaded them. The Arabic word used in the statement, “nahr,” is used for the slaughtering of sheep by cutting the throat and has been used in past statements to refer to beheadings.

Times of London, via CQ:

TALEBAN fighters used women and children as human shields as they tried to escape into the mountains of Afghanistan, British troops claimed yesterday. The tactics were revealed in the first account by those who fought in one of the main battles faced by the men of 3 Para and the Royal Gurkha Rifles in Helmand province, where 3,300 British troops are stationed.

The Taleban’s use of human shields happened during a six-hour battle that began when British troops arrived in a remote area to flush out a suspected Taleban hideout.

They came under attack seven times and fired 2,000 rounds as the rebels set ambushes and opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades. About 21 Taleban were killed.

“It happened twice where they pushed women and children in front of them. The first time they ran into a compound and pushed them out the front to stop the assault,” said Corporal Quintin Poll, 29, from Norfolk [UK]. “The second time they were firing through a building with women and children inside….”

Perhaps the only reason to avoid killing the enemy and whomever he chooses to hide behind is to preserve our troops’ sense of honor and pride, as well as their mental health. Perhaps an abstract moral code ought to trump these considerations, but abstract moral codes don’t win wars. Sooner or later we will need to confront the issue of an enemy who does not recognize or care about the existence of civilians, and who is willing to brutalize and torture our men with religious ardor and frenzy. This war simply cannot be won in a PC fashion, because PC sensibilities give an important advantage to the enemy, in close quarters on the battlefield, and worldwide through the MSM which publicize the success of their barbaric ways.

Second-guessing the judgment calls of men in battle seems to us a pretty good way for the US to go about defeating itself if it chooses to. (See our position here, paragraph 4.) Overall, when we see our brave and wonderful men tortured and killed by barbarians who wear armor made from boys and girls, we want maximum force and maximum hatred applied to these savages to wipe them from the face of the earth as fast as possible. We think of that speech in Patton:

You know, by God, I actually pity those poor bastards we’re going up against. By God, I do. We’re not just going to shoot the bastards, we’re going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We’re going to murder those lousy Hun bastards by the bushel…

The Nazis are the enemy. Wade into them! Spill their blood! Shoot them in the belly! When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend’s face, you’ll know what to do.

We know what we’d like to do.

UPDATE

These are the young men, Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, who gave their all for this country:

May God rest their souls and may we visit hellfire on our enemies. It is long overdue.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 20th, 2006 at 12:06 pm and is filed under art, culture, General, Religion, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.