Op-Ed: IS beheadings — A stream of atrocity pictures raises public fury

The Twitter feed #ISIS beheadings is truly nauseating. Other sites, notably Catholic.org, have published some gruesome pictures of a woman having her throat slit, and a decapitated young girl in her father’s arms. Other pictures include one of a presumably very dangerous baby with three AK47s pointed at him, and women said to be Christians in burquas in chains. Elsewhere, kids heads are apparently being displayed on sticks, according to some reports. READERS PLEASE NOTE: These are extremely confronting images. If you like kids, or even like human beings, I’d advise you not to look at the pictures. This is “terror” in its truest sense — an attempt to intimidate combined with the threat of more violence and more atrocities. If the victims are out of their misery, those who survive are not. More people will die like that. People around the world have been shocked out of their usual daze. Just read the commentary on Twitter and elsewhere. People are baffled that such things could happen in the 21st century. It’s an interesting, if rather repulsive, revelation that the democracies of the world, which only exist today because of their fathers and grandfathers’ fight against tyranny, are now so reluctant to fight. Cowardice? A betrayal of basic human rights? The lack of action against these atrocities almost looks like collusion. Should the West wait until all the human shields are gone? Is it right to appease some insipid legality which has no meaning for the perpetrators of countless crimes? Should ethnic groups pay for the cowardice of “leaders” who simply allow their people to be slaughtered? I would suggest to the world’s politicians that if they were obliged to carry around the headless body of one of their own kids for the cameras, they may not be quite so blasé about Iraq. Even US politicians, who have apparently been quite happy to let their own people rot in a politically induced coma for years, might reconsider. I would suggest to Middle Eastern leaders that their own heads might not be too secure on their shoulders if similar events occur in their countries. It’s not an unthinkable possibility. Few of the Arab Middle Eastern countries in the region are strong enough to deal with an attack on their own. Better still — I would suggest you look at the pictures circulating around the world. This is the obscenity you have created. What are you going to do about it? Nukes, anyone? The longer this war goes on, the more likely it is to spread. Every nutcase fanatic on Earth will want a part of this action. The chances of strikes around the world will increase over time. To do nothing is to ask for more. Surely even a collection of corrupt, money-worshipping politicians can see that, if nothing else. If they can’t, the US mid-terms and other elections are coming around, soon. Maybe somebody else can do a better job than those who’ve allowed thousands to die before doing anything at all? To quote a book I read somewhere- An eye for an eye. It’s an old idea, but it’s an accepted human, rather than statutory, law. (It’s an interesting book, particularly for a whodunit.) Better to have a short World War 3 than to let this disease continue to spread.