Mark Steyn on British Beheading...

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Mark Steyn on British Beheading...

Posted: 10/12/2004 4:38:34 AM EDT

Steyn's column was spiked by the Telegraph, who apparently didn't want to hurt feelings. But its a good column, a damn good column, and its today's "must read."

www.steynonline.com/index2.cfm?edit_id=22

A taste

By contrast with the Fleet Street-Scouser-Whitehall fiasco of the last three weeks, consider Fabrizio Quattrocchi, murdered in Iraq on April 14th. In the moment before his death, he yanked off his hood and cried defiantly, “I will show you how an Italian dies!” He ruined the movie for his killers. As a snuff video and recruitment tool, it was all but useless, so much so that the Arabic TV stations declined to show it.

If the FCO wants to issue advice in this area, that’s the way to go: If you’re kidnapped, accept you’re unlikely to survive, say “I’ll show you how an Englishman dies”, and wreck the video. If they want you to confess you’re a spy, make a little mischief: there are jihadi from Britain, Italy, France, Canada and other western nations all over Iraq – so say yes, you’re an MI6 agent, and so are those Muslims from Tipton and Luton who recently joined the al-Qaeda cells in Samarra and Ramadi. As Churchill recommended in a less timorous Britain: You can always take one with you. If Mr Blair and other government officials were to make that plain, it would be, to use Mr Bigley’s word, “enough”. A war cannot be subordinate to the fate of any individual caught up in it.

And, if you don’t want to wind up in that situation, you need to pack heat and be prepared to resist at the point of abduction. I didn’t give much thought to decapitation when I was mooching round the Sunni Triangle last year, but my one rule was that I was determined not to get into a car with any of the locals and I was willing to shoot anyone who tried to force me. If you’re not, you shouldn’t be there.

Posted: 10/12/2004 4:43:22 AM EDT

[#1]

well said.

being more than willing to kill them is the first step.

Posted: 10/12/2004 4:59:19 AM EDT

[#2]

I ditto that

Posted: 10/12/2004 5:08:13 AM EDT

[#3]

+1!

Posted: 10/12/2004 6:18:00 AM EDT

[#4]

Read that earlier this AM. Great point.

Posted: 10/12/2004 6:22:11 AM EDT

[#5]

Why would any man go into a war zone of his own free will who is not willing to kill to survive?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Mark Steyn on British Beheading...

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