The cliché about "sinking to their level" comes to mind. If someone who has committed heinous war crimes, I won't miss them or try to stop their execution. Then again, I don't personally have any desire to inflict any additional suffering on them. Then again, if I was a survivor of some of these regimes, I might feel differently.
Qubehead's statement above seems well-put to me.
I understand your viewpoint. However my point was first that I see terrorists decapitating helpless victims that have committed no crimes deserving of this treatment, yet they same people go crazy if we humiliate them. I can understand regional and cultural differences, but even so, their cowardly actions go far against any moral decency and there should be equal consequences for them.
It appears that their actions are sanctioned by their religion and government. So is it "sinking to their level" to do the same to them? Or is it what they understand? Their frame of reference. Let them know the consequences will be appropriate to their actions.
A few years ago I had a friend Mitch Werbel who was for want of a better word, a mercenary, here in Atlanta. Mitch had a company called Marietta Arms Corporation. They made neat little SMGs called MAC - 10 in .45 cal; MAC - 11 in 9mm. You may have heard of them. In fact Mitch reminded me of his weapons -- little and ugly, but very effective.
Mitch and some of his boys were given the assignment of guarding an Atlanta Coca Cola executive who was planning to tour South America. Word was sent from an extremist group that they planned to kidnap and ransom that executive.
Mitch responded that IF they succeeded, he would be sure that they did not receive a dime. But he promised also: "I will find you and I will kill you. I will kill your families, your neighbors, your children, your cats and your dogs. I will burn your village to the ground. It will be as though you never existed."
I guess that what he said could be an "Urban Rumor" however there were absolutely no incidents.
As I said, that could be an Urban Rumor, but I did know Mitch -- and some of his "boys" --- and give some credence to the possibility it was true.
I do have a personal example. I lived in a very good neighborhood in downtown Atlanta. One day when I was doing some yard work a homeless guy came by and begged me for some money. I gave him some in return for him raking leaves.
Big mistake.
A few days later he came back for more money. I told him I had no work. He was insistant, but finally left. When I drove off, he came back and rang the doorbell insisting to my wife that I 'owed him money' and he was not leaving until I paid him. He was very passive-agressive. This scared her.
I came back and he was gone. I called the police and made a report.
He had an uncanny sense of knowing when to appear and when to leave.
One day I came home and he was sitting on my porch, cap pulled down over his eyes. I told him to leave. He refused. I sat down beside him and told him I wanted him gone. He mumbled something.
He knew that if I called the police, he would be gone before they got there. He thought he would wear me down. I knew I had to "sink to his level" in order to really communicate.
So I told him that I had a gun and if he did not leave, I would kill him. That the police would find him dead in my driveway with a knife in his hand. "I ain't got no knife!"
"You will have by the time they get here. And you know something else? They will put my picture in the paper for being a hero because I live here. I pay taxes. I own this house. The police respect me and you are scum. Leave and don't come back. I won't warn you again." All this said in the same low passive agressive tone he used.
I believe in effective communication. I never saw him again.
I like Jack Bauer.
I have no problem "sinking to their level" if it is effective in curbing that stuff. Would I have shot him? I don't think so, but he did and that was enough.
I love Jack Bauer, his focus, his methods, he gets the job done.
