If you like it when evil terrorist masterminds get what’s coming to them, yesterday was a stellar day. Imad Mughniyeh, one of the world’s most elusive and wanted terrorists, took one for the glorious Islamist cause when he and his car were blown to kingdom come. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if it had happened on Valentine’s Day, but you can’t have everything.
In case the name Mughniyeh isn’t ringing any bells, he was a one-time Hezbollah “security chief” who was suspected of masterminding attacks that, among other things, killed hundreds of Americans. Those attacks include, but are not limited to, the following:
The 1983 car bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut (63 dead, including 17 Americans); the 1983 suicide truck bombing of the barracks of U.S. and French peacekeeping forces in Beirut (241 Marines and 59 French paratroopers killed); the hijacking of TWA flight 847, during which U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem was shot and dumped on the tarmac of the Beirut (where else?) airport; kidnappings galore, including AP Mideast correspondent Terry Anderson, who was released in 1991 after six years in captivity and CIA station chief William Buckley, who was tortured and killed by his captors in 1985.
As happy as we all should be over the richly deserved death of this monster, there is a bit of mystery surrounding it in that no one has claimed responsibility. Was it Israel? Was it the United States? Was it some rival terrorist faction? We may never know.
But Hezbollah knows where to lay the blame regardless of any possible conflicting reality and vowed to retaliate against Israeli targets anywhere in the world. Hey, isn’t that what they work at doing anyway, seven days a week, 365 days a year? So what’s changed?
Anyway, all decent people should be thrilled that Mughniyeh is gone. But not all people are decent, or, to be more kind, some people are, shall we say, morally confused, as I found out while listening to conservative radio talk show host Michael Medved yesterday, who was in a celebratory mood over the news of Mughniyeh’s richly gratifying extirpation.
Medved specializes in taking calls from people who disagree with him, presumably because it makes for rousing debate rather than just a bunch of preaching to the choir. But it gets a bit frustrating when he takes a call from someone who is a complete moral idiot incapable of distinguishing between good and evil and keeps her on the line for ten minutes, causing me to scream at the radio till I’m hoarse.
The female caller, in an infuriatingly condescending tone of voice, chastised Medved for celebrating the death of a “human being” and then went on with a typical leftist litany of the crimes of the United States, which were presumably the reason for the existence of terrorism in the first place. When asked what should have been done about Mughniyeh, her response was, “Leave him alone.”
The next caller, another moral moron, basically reiterated what the woman had said and I had to change the station before I ran off the road in a state of enraged exasperation.
Almost as disturbing as the terrorists and their despicable actions are the legions of Americans who, since the 1960s, have been rendered incapable of rational thought and bereft of moral clarity. It’s a lead pipe cinch they’re all voting for Obama who wants to meet face-to-face with the world’s premier dictators, as well as have a summit with Muslim countries in order to improve the United States’ image, as if it’s our image that needs improving and not the other way around.
It’s almost enough to make a person give up listening to talk radio, but then if you follow what’s going on at all, there’s simply no escape from the crazies. One has to be fearful for the country and extremely apprehensive about who becomes the next president. But for today, anyway, savor the news of Mughniyeh’s timely annihilation and look forward to the next such act of justice and moral clarity.
Greg Strange provides conservative commentary with plenty of acerbic wit on the people, politics, events and absurdities of our time. See more at his website: http://www.greg-strange.com/.
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JohnG said,
That’s not particularly different than the soft armchair quarterbacks here that wring their hands because a terrorist gets a pair of panty hose on his head.
I talked with a lawyer one time about interrogation vs. torture and I cited all the things all of our troops go through in basic training without saying it was troops or basic training and the lawyer categorized all of it (forced marches, blisters, carrying heavy weights long distances, forced exercise, long training hours - sleep deprivation - long rides on bumpy roads in trucks with no padding on the benches…) as torture.
I used to think that the press being embedded was a good idea, but any more, I think we should just let the military do its job in black out and all the nuckleheads here can watch Seinfeld or 24 episodes.
Either that or bring back the draft. Its absolutely how out of touch with reality the majority of people are.
February 14, 2008 at 1:54 pm
JohnG said,
Its absolutely *amazing* how out of touch with reality the majority of people are… I mean.
February 14, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Ouderkirk said,
I don’t believe in torturing prisoners. I would simply execute them and be rid of this human debris in short order. I can appreciate the desire for information from them. And maybe the thought of a swift and unceremonious execution may make them want to exchange information for clemency. If they choose not to be forthcoming, they die now. Once word gets out that they ask you a question once. If you answer it, you live longer, if you refuse, death is immediate.
February 15, 2008 at 8:39 am
JohnG said,
You used to capture them instead of kill them because you could remove them from the fight. Interrogation is secondary in a way, the positive angle is because you can find information that either a) allows you to better kill the enemy, and b) allows you to protect your soldiers.
We could actually fully dispense with interrogation - the result is more innocent civilians dead (with interrogation, you can use a scalpel, without you have to use a hammer) and more US servicemen dead.
The morality call boils down to: Do you inconvenience somebody and save lives or are you an ivory-tower type, that thinks its better that hundreds, thousands, millions maybe, die so you can say you “kept the moral high ground”. The ivory tower to me is absolutely immoral.
February 15, 2008 at 9:11 am
fourthwire said,
“The female caller, in an infuriatingly condescending tone of voice, chastised Medved for celebrating the death of a “human being” and then went on with a typical leftist litany of the crimes of the United States, which were presumably the reason for the existence of terrorism in the first place. When asked what should have been done about Mughniyeh, her response was, “Leave him alone.”"
Greg, there will likely always be brain-damaged, brainwashed critters in our society who view total scumbags such as Imad Mughniyeh as “human beings”……….
It’s a pity that Imad Mughniyeh had not ever held the bimbo who called into the talk radio station, her mother, or sister in captivity……… in which case she would be yammering about how we ought to do MORE to kill the likes of him.
February 16, 2008 at 1:59 pm