Patterico's Pontifications

2/3/2015

Jordanian Pilot Dies Horrific Death At The Hands Of ISIS

Filed under: General — Dana @ 5:45 pm



[guest post by Dana]

King Abdullah II of Jordan confirmed today that an horrific video released by ISIS showing a man being held in a cage and burned alive was indeed Jordanian pilot and ISIS hostage, Moaz al-Kasasbeh:

The 22-minute, slickly produced video shows the Jordanian combat pilot dressed in an orange jumpsuit and locked in a metal cage, his clothing doused with flammable chemicals.

The Jordanian pilot’s release was still being negotiated up until this weekend.

Lt. Muath Al-Kaseasbeh, 26, fell into the hands of the militants in December when his F-16 crashed near Raqqa, Syria, the de facto capital of the group’s self-styled caliphate. He was the only pilot from the U.S.-led coalition to have been captured to date.

Jordanian officials, who promised “strong, decisive and swift” revenge, are wasting no time in keeping their promise:

Jordan will execute Wednesday an Iraqi would-be suicide bomber on death row and other jihadists after having vowed to avenge the murder of a Jordanian pilot by Islamic State jihadists, an official said.

“The sentence of death pending on… Iraqi Sajida al-Rishawi will be carried out at dawn,” the security official said on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Rishawi, the would-be bomber, was condemned to death for her participation in deadly attacks in Amman in 2005, and IS had offered to spare the life of the Jordanian fighter pilot, Lieutenant Maaz al-Kassasbeh, if she were released.

“The death sentence will be carried out on a group of jihadists, starting with Rishawi, as well as Iraqi Al-Qaeda operative Ziad Karbuli and others who attacked Jordan’s interests,” the security source said.

“Jordan’s response will be earth-shattering,” Information Minister Mohammed Momani said earlier on television, while the army and government vowed to avenge the pilot’s murder.

Meanwhile, President Obama responded to the news of al-Kaseasbeh’s death with the usual platitudes:

Today, the coalition fights for everyone who has suffered from ISIL’s inhumanity. It is their memory that invests us and our coalition partners with the undeterred resolve to see ISIL and its hateful ideology banished to the recesses of history.

Exactly what America’s role will be in banishing ISIS and its “hateful ideology” that shall not be named, remains to be seen.

–Dana

143 Responses to “Jordanian Pilot Dies Horrific Death At The Hands Of ISIS”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (8e74ce)

  2. Obama doesn’t even know who did this, much less care.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  3. He will express his extreme annoyance in a harshly-worded letter. How dare they! Did they not get the memo!?!?!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  4. Looked like a workplace accident to me.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  5. More unarmed black youths are executed by white policemen in America than Jordanians burned alive in cages by ISIS every year. Why do we care about this?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  6. not funny

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  7. I think they want Jordan to execute the female terrorist, so promising to do it was the wrong move.

    It could be also that they are merely testing out Jordan to see if Jordan will do it, because if Jordan doesn’t, it’s exposed as a bluff, and they’d like that. But ore likely, they wanted Jordan to do the execution.

    They not only killed him, they did it in a particularly cruel way.

    They burned him to death, and cited some 14th century Islamic text that does’t actually say what they claim it means, since it says that disfigurement is a possible method od execution. But this is not disfigurement!

    CBS broadcast an excerpt from an interview with King Abdullah II in which he says they have nothing to do with Islam – he doesn’t wnat to use the word, but it’s something like a a heresy

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  8. ISIS probably wanted to execute everybody from outside Syria and Iraq.

    Their real goal is creating an intelligence-free zone. They are just trying to make it look like it’s not.

    They want to make everybody afraid to go anywhere near their territory.

    And they also don’t want anyone taking any of their people prisoner because they might talk.

    The execution of prisoners by both sides is win-win from their point of view.

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  9. don’t say “earth-shattering” and then not do earth-shattering

    dazzle me

    happyfeet (831175)

  10. I wonder what people would say if Israel would execute anyone in retaliation.f

    This has never been done by any decent power.

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  11. #dontfrymebro

    Greg (b524bb)

  12. 3. He will express his extreme annoyance in a harshly-worded letter. How dare they! Did they not get the memo!?!?!
    Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/3/2015 @ 5:54 pm

    You mean the same memo Putin didn’t get about how he’s not behaving in the Ukraine like we’re supposed to behave in the 21st century?

    No. He’ll give a speech at the UN about how this has nothing to do with Islam. Then he’ll talk about America’s imperfections. He’ll bring up Ferguson as an example. He’ll vow to fight anti-Jihad hate speech. He’ll accuse Republicans of hating US servicemembers if they don’t vote to close GITMO which is an ISIS recruiting tool.

    And I am not trying to be funny. I can’t stand our President. He is a vile human being. I heard him speak. Completely unemotional. But when he talks about Republicans, and by extension the majority of US who voted for them, he gets angry at the personal affront to hes giant ego.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  13. ISIS published their authorization from the Quran in torturing the apostate to death.

    How inconvenient. How orthodox.

    DNF (5b331a)

  14. Captured ISIS fighters should be roasted in brazen bulls.

    Michael Ejercito (d9a893)

  15. If Obama says this has nothing to do with Islam, DNF, in this one instance he’ll have half a point. There is no authorization in the Quran for what they did.

    http://quran.com/5/33

    Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment,

    But they were following their prophet’s example. Some nomads, Bedouins, who had recently converted to Islam were visiting Muhammad. They didn’t find the Arabian climate to their liking, so Muhammad sent them over to a camel herd to drink some camel urine (Muhammad’s favorite health drink). The killed the camel herders, stole the camels, and apostacized.

    When Muhammad’s men caught them, he had both hands and feet cut off, their eyes gouged out, hot metal spikes driven into their empty eye sockets, and threw them out onto a hot, rocky plain to die in agony. He even refused them water when they begged for it.

    That savagery was too much even for Allah, who said, “Whoa, Muhammad, you went too far. In the future the punishment for such people shall be ‘none but’ what I’m giving you here.”

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  16. Another red line? The last one worked well for Obama.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  17. wonder if one the islamic terrorist groups will take on the PLO/Hamas terrorists?
    http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/02/03/outrage-follows-palestinian-authority-dailys-publication-of-muhammad-cartoon/

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  18. #4 is correct. Workplace violence.

    AZ Bob (34bb80)

  19. It’s dawn in Jordan and it’s done.

    elissa (3ba901)

  20. Why does the link to the “horrific video released by ISIS” go to Krauthammer at NRO?

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  21. She helped her husband kill 38 people. So ….

    nk (dbc370)

  22. So now she will get 72 Virginians…

    Gazzer (e441dc)

  23. You know, I wonder how that works, Gazzer.

    elissa (3ba901)

  24. The State Department is looking for a really pithy hashtag to counter this:

    #don’tburnprisoners

    #youaren’treallyislamic

    #that’slikesomeanandstuff

    Jen Psaki is apparently partial to the last one. I’m sure some others will be floated in coming days.

    JVW (60ca93)

  25. No, she gets to be with her last husband for eternity.

    nk (dbc370)

  26. Steve57,

    Link fixed.

    Dana (8e74ce)

  27. Which is kind of contradictory seeing as she’s promised to be free of the cares and pains of the World. http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/articles/158781/what-awaits-women-in-paradise

    nk (dbc370)

  28. elissa, it’s not done. The executions are done. But Jordan is full of ISIS-type Islamists.

    This will not end well.

    And if President Obama (no nicknames, I’m not in the mood for humor) had put US boots on the ground months ago against the JV team it would have been over months ago. If the idiot hadn’t pulled all US forces out of Iraq as reality demanded, but pandering to his leftist base wouldn’t permit, we wouldn’t have ever gotten this far.

    We keep making a huge mistake, elissa. We show too much mercy. Even under Bush we had to be oh so sensitive. We didn’t fight during Ramadan. We didn’t fire on mosques. We’d drop food to friend and foe alike, just in case “collateral damage” found themselves homeless because we weren’t careful enough. But the Quran calls us kuffar the “worst of creatures.” The Islamists can never allow us to be seen as decent or noble or kind. There is nothing we can do about it. We can either be seen as weak or contemptible, or we can face facts and put the fear of Allah into them. We still have the military to do it.

    Obama keeps saying there’s no military solution to this. Oh, yes there is. It’s not a complete solution maybe. But Obama is using that as an excuse to do next to nothing militarily. So things won’t end well for Jordan. And things will get much worse for us. Because our delusional President imagines he has better grasp on the “arc of history” than everyone else so he thinks somehow ISIS will just go away on its own. Now that we have a President with a Muslim-sounding name and a compelling personal story and everyone will see America is now a much better country than it was in the past because of it.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  29. Eternity is a long time to keep your eyes closed while humming nah nah nah nah nah

    steveg (794291)

  30. Thanks, Dana. I’d rather have the nightmares than to be afraid to face facts.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  31. Maybe meet Doug McClure…

    Gazzer (e441dc)

  32. Oh, it still goes to NRO. Not the video.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  33. Steve57, again, it sounds like you’re arguing with, or teaching dummkopfs Why do you do this????

    elissa (3ba901)

  34. And youtube has taken it down.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  35. I’m not arguing with dummkopfs, elissa. I’m complaining about them. And wondering this country keeps putting them in charge.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  36. *wondering why this country…

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  37. Why did you direct that 5 paragraph post to me then, Steve57. And then mention me by name again in paragraph 4? Clearly you knew from my cryptic message about dawn in Jordan that I was referring specifically to the executions.

    elissa (3ba901)

  38. I think people here need to research on Jordon, ‘palestinians’ and Black September.

    Jordon got rid of vermin before, they can do it again.

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  39. Why do you keep reading things that aren’t there into my comments?

    Yes, I knew you were referring to the executions.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  40. seeRpea, that was a while ago. This is more recent info about Jordan.

    http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief005-25.htm

    It was written in 2006. It’s dated, but not out of date.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  41. Steve57,

    I didn’t link to the video directly, but rather linked to where I quoted from. I didn’t think of it as misleading readers, of course, but it appears to have done just that to you, so I will insert it elsewhere. Thanks for pointing it out.

    Dana (8e74ce)

  42. What do we have the stupid NSA for? They should be able to trace the whole route of that video and send a little Hellfire to ISIS enablers.

    nk (dbc370)

  43. I think it’s about time to give anyone who wants to live three weeks to get out of Syria – before we turn it into the world’s largest glass sculpture.

    Leviticus (310a01)

  44. Seriously. Enough of this sh*t.

    Leviticus (310a01)

  45. ==elissa, it’s not done. The executions are done. But Jordan is full of ISIS-type Islamists.==

    ==We keep making a huge mistake, elissa. We show too much mercy. ==

    Yes I know for some reason it’s your preferred commenting style Steve57, but never the less it’s annoying as heck.

    elissa (3ba901)

  46. #HugsNotBBQs

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  47. I’m a bit torn. I really can’t shed tears of Arab governments killing Arab terrorists.
    But who is who in Syria and Lebanon.
    Then a nice inter-Arab blowup. Maybe this would be Gog and Magog.

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  48. Our role will be hand-wringing and cautious discussion of possible options until there are no possible options available to the cautious.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  49. Leviticus, for once we see eye to eye.

    Unfortunately, we have a President who’d rather give us a sociology lecture.

    And I apologize in advance for my annoying as heck commenting style.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  50. The people who created ISIS, Leviticus, live in Riyadh, Tel Aviv, and Crawford, Texas. Not Baghdad.

    nk (dbc370)

  51. heh, I saw what you did there, nk.

    elissa (3ba901)

  52. This has never been done by any decent power.

    The lawyers always object. And so we have wars that have no end, because no one is willing to be Bomber Harris or Curtis LeMay.

    At the end of WW2 LeMay was obliterating a German city a day. No targets, just carpet bombing with incendiaries. Absolutely brutal. If you kill enough of them, he said, they will stop fighting.

    But now? Jarndyce and Jarndyce applied to war, where everything is about getting your next negotiating point accepted.

    And this will go on until it cannot go on anymore and then, boys and girls, we’ll have a Big War. The draft and everything. And no one will be talking about what is “decent.”

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  53. I would have done it better if I had remembered that Baghdad is Iraq and Damascus is Syria.

    nk (dbc370)

  54. oh, I though that was part of the joke.

    elissa (3ba901)

  55. If you wish. But inadvertent on my part.

    nk (dbc370)

  56. Obama keeps saying there’s no military solution to this.

    I think I could put a dent in things with 100 MOABs.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  57. With The Game on the line, you never want to have President Barca Lounger as your option.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  58. Jordan’s King Abdullah was in Washington Tuesday and met with lawmakers shortly after he learned of the brutal immolation of his pilot.

    “He mentioned ‘Unforgiven’ and he mentioned Clint Eastwood, and he actually quoted a part of the movie.”
    Hunter would not say which part of “Unforgiven” the king quoted, but noted it was where Eastwood’s character describes how he is going to deliver his retribution.

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/after-isis-execution-angry-king-abdullah-quotes-clint-eastwood-to-u.s.-lawmakers/article/2559770

    elissa (3ba901)

  59. 50. The people who created ISIS, Leviticus, live in Riyadh, Tel Aviv, and Crawford, Texas Washington, DC. Not Baghdad.

    nk (dbc370) — 2/3/2015 @ 8:40 pm

    I had to FTFY. Bush merely sat on top of a pyramid with a very wide base. A pyramid of s***heads.

    It’s true that Bush followed their advice, and that advice clearly aligned with Bush’s piss-poor instincts. But he was bush-league (heh) compared to Obama who was schooled on the M.E. at the kitchen table of Rasheed Khalidi. Bush sat in the pews of the Church of BS. Obama gives sermons from the pulpit.

    To give you but one example, AQ can practically announce their plans in their magazine, Inspire, or on social media. But you have to understand the Quranic and hadithic references they use. You have to read the Islamic sources.

    Anybody who would actually read them, though, is a heretic in the Church of B.S. Which preaches that none of this has anything to do with Islam. So they’re gone. Fired. Because the Muslim Brotherhood advisers to the chief priests of the church tell the priests that it’s Islamophobic to do intelligence analysis. And that will only make the terrorists of undetermined and indecipherable motivation angry.

    To give you an idea of the sheer idiocy that breeds in Washington DC, they really believe that only if Israel were forced to the peace table and there were a Palestinian state the Islamic world would be at peace with the rest of the world. Because of course Thai Muslims and Indonesian Muslims beheading their non-Muslim neighbors are all kinds of upset about the plight of the Palestinians.

    It really is an article of religious faith they have at CIA, State, parts of the Pentagon.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  60. Kevin @56, overwhelming firepower has a way of changing hearts and minds. The kind of B-52 strike that just goes on and on and on until those who remain alive in their bunkers are reduced to mindless, crying masses of deaf, terrorized bowls of jello.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  61. King Abdullah II had a British mum and was educated primarily in England and in the United States from boyhood. He had as much if not actually more western schooling than our current president.

    Abdullah began his schooling at the Islamic Educational College in Amman. He then attended St Edmund’s School, Hindhead, in England, before continuing his education in the United States at Eaglebrook School and Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts. In 1980 he joined the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, was commissioned into the British Army as a Second Lieutenant, and served for a year as a troop commander in the 13th/18th Royal Hussars.[1] In 1982, Abdullah was admitted to Pembroke College, Oxford, where he completed a one-year Special Studies course in Middle Eastern Affairs. In 1987, he attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.[4] In 1993, he assumed command of Jordan’s Special Forces and became a Major General in May 1998.

    elissa (3ba901)

  62. An Vietnam-era infantryman describes such an airstrike.

    http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=55177

    …I was an infantry NCO in Vietnam in an area where the B-52 Arc Light Operations took place. A part of our mission was to patrol into the targeted areas post-bombing to assess the effectiveness of the aerial raids. The assessment was easy because it was a slam-dunk; nothing lived in those long, wide, and unfortunate carpet bombing patterns except perhaps recently arrived insects in the water pooled in the huge craters. Human and animal life simply was no longer to be seen. Did it work? Well, by the end of the 1972 bombing campaign, our battle assessment experts were finding it difficult to locate additional targets worthy of a B-52 sortie.

    The North Vietnamese came to the peace table in Paris because they had come to the realization that we were quite capable of bombing their ancient civilization, of which they are so proud, all the way back into the very pre-civilized Stone Age. Or rather, we would have rendered them so militarily defenseless that the always feared invasion from the ancient enemy to the north would be a cakewalk, and they would once again be enslaved by the hated Chinese for a few additional centuries.

    So, again, just whose conventional wisdom is it that you can’t win wars by bombing alone? Agreed, you cannot seize and hold terrain. But if your strategic objective is not to occupy your enemy’s homeland, but rather just to render that enemy incapable of further and future aggression against you and your allies, then where does an all-out bombing campaign come up short? Lastly, how do we know the truth of this so-called wisdom if we’ve not tried it?…

    I say let’s give B-52s a chance.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  63. The Islamic Eye Exam you have to pass before the Freshman Dorm administration will hire you.

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V_omhStitGo/VMpbhu7h4DI/AAAAAAAAEnA/tSra7FxF3J4/s1600/MSM.jpg

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  64. Libya. Another Freshman Dorm administration success story. Perhaps people missed this.

    http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/01/28/world/middleeast/ap-ml-libya.html?_r=1

    TRIPOLI, Libya — Militants loyal to the Islamic State group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for a deadly and complex attack on a hotel in Libya’s capital Tripoli, signaling an expansion of the jihadi group’s reach in the chaotic North African state while raising questions about the extent of coordination with leaders in Syria and Iraq.

    The attack on the Corinthia hotel on Tuesday, in which gunmen burst into the lobby and set off a car bomb in the parking lot, left 10 people dead, including an American and four other foreigners. An affiliate of the Islamic State claimed the attack and released photos of two suicide bombers it said took part in the assault.

    Libya is increasingly taking on the appearance of a failed state, with its elected government forced to reside in the far eastern part of the country…

    Just what has to happen before the Obama loyalists in the LHMFM concede Libya is a failed state.

    If Hillary! runs we need to run ads of of the results she achieved in Libya along with her giggling like an idiot as she gloats over Ghaddafi’s death, “We came, we saw, he died.” Yeah, and later on her watch so did Stevens, Smith, Doherty, and Woods.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  65. I wonder what people would say if Israel would execute anyone in retaliation.f

    This has never been done by any decent power.

    Are you kidding? It has been done in every war ever fought, going back to the first time some asshole banged another caveman over the head with a rock.

    gahrie (12cc0f)

  66. Speaking of decent powers, maybe Boehner should slip King Abdullah a note while he’s in town. Asking him to execute anyone Obama is dumb enough to release from GITMO.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  67. re #65: I think Sammy meant since Geneva Convention was ratified.

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  68. I hope those two never were told why they were being executed. Let them die without any sense of vindication.

    This king was picked by his father to succeed him, out of the line of succession, IIRC, which shocked everyone at the time. His father seems to have picked wisely.

    So, seeRpea, yes, they know how to get rid of vermin. This king’s father bombed the Pali terrorists himself, when they caused trouble in Jordan. I hope he proves to be a true leader, because the world sure needs one to defeat “whatever organization” is killing us, as our feckless leader calls it.

    They are obviously never going to release a prisoner alive, so if it were me in there I’d rather die by an American bomb than by these savages.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  69. #50,nk, ISIS was created in Tehran, Tripoli and Washington DC and armed with guns shipped from Benghazi.

    ropelight (0bf9e0)

  70. seeRpea @67, if that’s the case then once again Sammy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Sajida al-Rishawi wasn’t executed in retaliation for ISIS’ murder of Muath Al-Kaseasbeh. She was already sentenced to death by a civilian court years ago for the crime of terrorism that she committed in Amman. And frankly she should have been executed years ago. They did move the execution up, apparently, but she was already on death row.

    Please explain (feel free to chime in, Sammy) how in hell the Geneva Convention applies to any of this.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  71. 68. …This king’s father bombed the Pali terrorists himself, when they caused trouble in Jordan…

    Patricia (5fc097) — 2/3/2015 @ 9:42 pm

    Actually he strapped on his jet and bombed a Syrian armored column when Hafez al Assad attempted to intervene on behalf of the Pali terrorists.

    A small quibble. It was still ballsy of him. Maybe even moreso than bombing the Pali terrorists themselves.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  72. nk—Greece is KILLING Hillary’s son in law.

    elissa (3ba901)

  73. Most of the Arc Light raids were in Countries other than North Vietnam. They did bomb North Vietnam in 72 when Nixon sent them in to increase pressure but the peace talks were already going on. Although their losses were high I suspect the main reason they went to the tables was the knowledge, encouraged by disloyal Americans like Kerry and Kennedy, that they could get us out without fighting and then sweep in without our interference, which they were in fact able to do. Treason was cheaper than war, it’s nice to have traitors in your enemy’s government.

    In WW2 we had in fact destroyed so many of the Japanese cities that they had to reserve a few for the atom bombs and they were having trouble finding targets worth B-29 raids but this was far from victory. Even the dropping of the first A-bomb did not break their resolve and the second one only resulted in a tied vote, which let them call on the Emperor to resolve. In Germany we had finally found a working strategy for our strategic bombing and there is no question it had a terrible effect on the German war making capability but would anyone really suggest that the Germans would have surrendered without the invasions from all sides?

    I think the fact that the worlds most powerful superpower could do considerable damage to a small and backward country does not well support the case that heavy bombers alone can win a war. I might suggest that far from breaking the North Vietnamese, when they got us out and then re-invaded the South, it was us that were too traumatized to get back into the fight as we had promised, or maybe just too corrupt and weakened by treason from within. I don’t think it makes a good case that airpower won a war. We can commit genocide if we have the will and determination, and obviously airpower has abilities it never had before, but I don’t think a case can be made that it can win on it’s own. It has mostly been used by corrupt Presidents to wag the dog when a scandal must be taken off the front pages when it is used on it’s own.

    machinist (313c6a)

  74. machinist, I appreciate the history lesson. I agree air power alone won’t win any sort of conventional conflict. But that consideration hardly applies to the current situation with ISIS terror group in the terrain they’re operating in. B-52s would be useful for exterminating vermin on that open, arid plateau. Which should be the goal.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  75. I just shudder at the thought of the Obama frat kids or worse, Valerie Jarrett, picking targets and dictating ROE.

    In Vietnam we had Johnson deciding fire missions for field guns and those B-52s were required to fly missions using tight lanes that made them easy targets for AA and SAMs. How much worse would this be?

    machinist (313c6a)

  76. President Rasputin Jarrett would probably require those B-52s to go in low enough to be within range of ISIS MANPADS just to make it fair.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  77. I linked to a report by an Israeli think tank about the internal jihadist threat to Jordan @40. It’s still relevant background information despite being written nearly 10 years ago. Today the South China Morning Post provides a useful update.

    http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1699862/islamic-state-using-pilot-hostage-crisis-exploit-internal-divisions

    Islamic State using pilot hostage crisis to exploit internal divisions in Jordan

    Militants holding air force pilot exploit hostage crisis to highlight kingdom’s support for US-led coalition and foment opposition to the regime

    …Observers say IS is trying to deepen domestic rifts in a country whose security forces are growing increasingly alarmed by the appeal of jihadist ideology, especially in impoverished cities across the kingdom.

    Dozens of youths, even from the pilot’s hometown, have travelled to fight alongside hardline groups in Syria and as far away as Afghanistan.

    “It’s an impossible situation for [Jordan]. They don’t have a decent hand,” a Western diplomat in Amman said.

    “It’s clear that Daesh is looking to manipulate the political space with Jordan, and unfortunately they are very adept at that.”..

    The JV team isn’t stupid.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  78. Thanks for the info, Steve.

    After the horror of the last week or so, I am guessing this is a sign of weakening of ISIS. The Jordanian pilot was already dead when ISIS attempted negotiation. The only reason could be propaganda value, but they looked like ineffective liars when the truth became evident. They haven’t invaded Baghdad, either. I think they are losing control of their conquered people, of their own “army” too. Reality has caught up with them. I think our air attack did contribute to this.

    My two cents as one with no military experience whatsoever…but I smell weakness, not strength.

    BTW Obama or Rasputin Valerie did authorize a “restraint under fire” medal too, didn’t he, until everyone shouted it down? Jerks.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  79. I disagree Steve57, that is stupid to do with Jordan. The Jordanians had no problem killing their own cousins, think they will have an issue with the distant relatives who don’t even believe?

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  80. The fact that Jordanians have no problem killing their own cousins, as you put it seeRpea, is a sword that cuts both ways. And if they don’t have any such problem it’s because it’s so often necessary.

    ISIS isn’t particularly strong. It isn’t weakening but it’s never been strong. But it’s gotten as far as it has because the countries it attacks are so weak, as well.

    But we’ll see. The proof will be in the blood pudding.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  81. nk—Greece is KILLING Hillary’s son in law.

    I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

    JVW (60ca93)

  82. Obama has counciled restraint to king of jordan. He doesn’t want this little problem to interfere with pro isis saudi princes donating to his presidential library.

    nuke mecca (7abdf0)

  83. Eaglevale is a laundry for the bribes paid to the Clintons by Marc Lasry and Llloyd Blankfein. The Greek component of Eaglevale is $15 million. Lasry’s own hedge fund is worth $13.3 b-i-l-l-i-o-n. I don’t know how much that little Mom and Pop place Blankfein runs is worth (they call it Goldman Sachs, I think). Their investment is in Hillary, not in Greece. Mezvinsky will be fine — he’ll continue to draw his salary and benefits.

    nk (dbc370)

  84. Speaking of Greeks the new plan smacks a little of MBS, rolling in old, toxic debt into new clothes.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11388263/Greeces-rock-star-finance-minister-Yanis-Varoufakis-defies-ECBs-drachma-threats.html

    The goal is to hold off runs on Greek banks until Grexit. Wish them luck.

    DNF (712cbd)

  85. 52, 62, 74. One thing is clear, there is a lot of deferred killing remaining to get done.

    DNF (712cbd)

  86. Steve57 (8d38a0) — 2/3/2015 @ 9:57 pm

    if that’s the case then once again Sammy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Sajida al-Rishawi wasn’t executed in retaliation for ISIS’ murder of Muath Al-Kaseasbeh. She was already sentenced to death by a civilian court years ago for the crime of terrorism that she committed in Amman.

    That’s technically, true.

    But they weren’t going to execute her, and her execution as no where close. They were even in fact going to exchange her for the pilot, if that was possible, and then they said that, if, however the pilot is killed, she will be killed too.

    And frankly she should have been executed years ago. They did move the execution up, apparently, but she was already on death row.

    It was somebody whom they could legally and morally execute, but they reserved it. This sort of thing had happened with other prisoners in Jordan, where there is a sentence that is not carried out. Some Islamist cleric was not imprisoned or something because he condemned ISIS.

    Please explain (feel free to chime in, Sammy) how in the Geneva Convention applies to any of this.

    You’re right it doesn’t. She was not a prisoner of war, although there was this offer to exchange her for a prisoner of war.

    And ISIS, like many terrorist groups, was treating her situation as if dhe was a prisoner of war.

    It’s still, I think, the first time somebody has been executed by a generally decent power in retaliation for killing a prisoner. This was very explicit.

    It’s true enough they were entitled to give her the death penalty anyway.

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  87. Maybe Obama can challenge ISIS to a golf scramble–he’s unlikely to beat them at anything else.

    rochf (f3fbb0)

  88. Vosotros pendejos no entienden nada. Read about any civil war. Any one, at any time, anywhere at all. They’re all full of atrocities.

    nk (dbc370)

  89. It all depends on what you consider an atrocity*, nk. When a pali terrorist shoots an infant in a crib or launches an RPG at a school bus that’s an understandable act by the Noble Resistance.

    When Israel sets up Iron Dome to intercept pali missiles fired indiscriminately into their territory, it’s an atrocity when Jooooz aren’t killed.

    * From the leftist school of moral equivalency.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  90. Jordanian state television said (Jordan believes?) he was actually killed on January 3. (New York Post)

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  91. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/after-isis-execution-angry-king-abdullah-quotes-clint-eastwood-to-u.s.-lawmakers/article/2559770

    …”He’s angry,” Hunter said of King Abdullah. “They’re starting more sorties tomorrow than they’ve ever had. They’re starting tomorrow. And he said, ‘The only problem we’re going to have is running out of fuel and bullets.'”…

    Bullets? Wouldn’t napalm be more appropriate?

    No. I’m not kidding.

    Actually a fuel-air explosive would be just the thing for these vermin.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  92. Lt. Muath Al-Kaseasbeh was clearly a very brave man. I haven’t seen the whole video, but I saw excerpts. I saw him walk to the cage where he knew he was going to be burnt alive. He was beaten, bruised, and bloody, but unbowed.

    Jordan didn’t trade any terrorists for him. They would have, and it would have been worth it to get him back. Now they’re executing terrorists as every decent country should. It’s long past time.

    This trade, which did take place, was not worth it.

    http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2015/02/02/with-bergdahl-army-leaders-must-choose-honor-over-politics-n1950667

    It’s time for the generals and the flag officers to show they have 1/10th the courage of the men who had to search for Bergdahl knowing he was a P.O.S. and a Blue Falcon. But they risked their lives going anyway.

    … Let’s be clear – the fact that no general has pulled the stars off his epaulets and thrown them down on the table to protest the Bergdahl cover-up is a disgrace.

    …The effect of a senior general resigning rather than going along with bypassing the Uniform Code of Military Justice for political gain would send shockwaves through Washington. By failing to do the one thing they can do in a system where elected civilian politicians control the military, the generals have become part of the politicians’ lies…

    Any honest general and flag officer needs to resign, not just one. Because if they’re honest they are either willing to keep faith with the troops they lead in the face of this disgrace of an administration, or if they’re afraid of this administration then they’re not worthy of the troops they lead. Either way, go.

    Bergdahl needs to be made an example despite this administrations fecklessness. If that’s impossible then the senior leadership needs to set an example.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  93. I wonder what people would say if Israel would execute anyone in retaliation

    You know what would happen. The Israeli High Court would have itself a righteous hissy fit and order the President to fire the government and appoint a new one, and then order the new government to arrest the entire old government. Oh, and probably order the prison authority to release all terrorists to protect them from any future such action. And it would require all candidates for the Knesset to denounce the action and swear that they would not support such a thing if they were elected. Because the Israeli judiciary sees its role as imposing its own “enlightened” values on a country of “savages”.

    Milhouse (9d71c3)

  94. Jordan needs to do the world a favor and target the authority figure(s) who issued the fatwa encouraging this barbarism. It’s time for the preachers of jihad to be held accountable for the incitement they’re encouraging. Targeting the Daesh leaders and followers is not enough.

    crazy (cde091)

  95. crazy, I know it sounds crazy but there isn’t actually an Imam in the M.E. who would write a Fatwa authorizing burning this pilot alive. It goes even beyond the rules Islam sets for itself.

    ISIS clearly wrote this fatwa themselves, pulling the authorization out of its collective @$$. The closest I’ve seen to an English translation of the Arabic is that the prophet burned the apostates.

    No one has a lower opinion of Muhammad than I do, but no he didn’t. There is nothing in the Quran, the Hadiths, the Sirah, or the Tafsir that would support that.

    So for now we’re stuck with going after the ISIS leaders.

    Whoops. I meant Jordan is stuck with going after the ISIS leaders. We’re stuck with Prom Queen.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  96. I’m surprised the president of Egypt has not gotten off’ed yet. maybe the Moslem Brotherhood , ISIS and the like do not have the power and range within the Arab Muslim community that we thought. In which case, maybe-maybe-maybe Egypt will join Jordan in vermin control.

    seeRpea (181740)

  97. How is burning someone alive worse than beheading? I actually watched the burning video many times over and felt nothing. But I can’t get myself to watch a beheading. Having said that, notice how the entire Muslim world is suddenly outraged about this fellow Muslim’s execution. Where was this rage when the other prisoners who weren’t Muslims were being decapitated? Hypocrites.

    The Emperor (ac5018)

  98. I guess if beheading somehow precludes access to paradise(which was reported by someone here last month) then ISIS cut the poor bastard a break.

    His composure during the agony did his tribe proud.

    DNF (88591f)

  99. 88. Obviously our number will start turning up soon.

    When you see a car full of rag heads rolling up the street you’d best not wait for them to begin hostilities.

    DNF (88591f)

  100. It is sorta like eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. People burned in the bombings, so the pilot got burned then buried under rubble. Some genius Holy man Quran scholar wrote a qisa to sharia law back however long ago that supports this.

    I still think the ISIS fighters need to be introduced to the B-52

    steveg (794291)

  101. “I actually watched the burning video many times over and felt nothing.”

    Lovey – You have never been right in the head.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  102. I saw elissa make reference to this, I have not heard mention of it anywhere else.

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/02/03/islamic-state-jordanian-pilot/22798055/

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  103. ==How is burning someone alive worse than beheading?==

    OMG, think about it for 2 seconds. Beheading is instant or near instant death. The burning can take a while. Have you ever scalded a finger while cooking or gotten too close to food on a barbque grill or touched a hot motor. It hurts like hell. Imagine your whole body engulfed in flame for even a minute.

    elissa (089d2b)

  104. Chimperor has always been a sick lizard.

    nk (dbc370)

  105. In addition to the unimaginable agony, burning to death is intended to increase the terror of the execution.

    Which is another reason I’m awed by this pilot’s composure. He didn’t just walk rock-steady to his death. He walked rock-steady to this death.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  106. 102. There is one added element that might be not so obvious to Westerners. Total destruction of the body (burning)is worse than partial destruction (beheading), which in turn is less destructive than modes of execution that leave the body more or less whole, such as stoning and strangling. Thus to ISIS, burning is not merely horribly painful but more demeaning to the victim.

    kishnevi (a5d1b9)

  107. Jordan is pissed and the King is pissed.

    Jordan’s King Abdullah ibn al-Hussein, who has trained as a pilot, may fly a bomber himself on Thursday in the country’s retaliation against the ISIS.

    Several Arabic-language newspapers reported late Wednesday that the monarch would personally participate in bombing raids on the terrorist group, citing his vow Tuesday to “strike them in their strongholds.”

    http://dailycaller.com/2015/02/04/jordans-king-may-participate-personally-in-isis-raids/

    elissa (089d2b)

  108. Mary Katharine Ham has thoughts on the Jordanian king and says them beautifully at Hot Air.

    Since he’s trained as a pilot, this feels less like silly Putinesque staged bravado and more like a Jordanian John Wick after vengeance. Or, maybe that’s just how I’d like to imagine it because it’s nice to imagine a leader of a country so righteously enraged by the brutal killing of his citizens and so skilled in the kicking of ass that he decides to engage in it personally. Even if it’s not the most practical of foreign policies to have each president enter the Octagon with these barbarians, I long for a modicum of the clarity that animates the impulse.

    elissa (089d2b)

  109. Reminiscent of “Independence day” with the president flying a fighter.

    Burning vs. beheading, gruesome either way, but if the beheading is done by sawing with a dull blade, that’s pretty terrible also. I’ve never watched any of them, myself.

    MD in Philly (f9371b)

  110. The thought of burning to death, Doc, is what caused people to jump 100 stories to their deaths on 9/11.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  111. elissa @107, it’s family tradition. In 1970 during Black September when a Syrian armored column invaded Jordan to aid pali terrorists his father, King Hussein, flew against it.

    When these guys say something like, “I killed bin Laden” they really did kill bin Laden. Same with Netanyahu.

    As opposed to President Yorkie Terrier. When he yaps about killing bin Laden he’s taking credit for something his betters did.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  112. It’s Thursday in Jordan and the air assault against ISIS has begun. It looks like Abdullah did in fact get in his plane. Here’s a couple of pictures.

    http://weaselzippers.us/213206-report-jordans-king-abdullah-carries-out-his-first-airstrike-on-isis/

    elissa (089d2b)

  113. I posted this on the other thread:

    These “people” are despicable:

    Following this the Islamic State affiliated accounts have been holding discussions among its followers asking for ways to ‘execute the captured pilot’.

    An Arabic Twitter trend started by ISIS — “suggest a way to kill the Jordanian Pilot Pig” has been widely shared among ISIS following. A Vocativ report stated that the hashtag “suggest a way to kill the Jordanian Pilot Pig” has been shared over 1,000 times among ISIS supporters, who enthusiastically have been suggesting several brutal ways to kill the Jordanian pilot.

    Some of the ideas shared by the ISIS followers include beheading Moath al-Kassassbeh, burning him alive and making a bulldozer run over his body, it is reported.

    An ISIS supporter, who claims to be the mother of a Syrian man killed by a coalition airstrike in a video, suggests that the Jordanian pilot should be ‘impaled and hung on a pole to so that he dies slowly. And it would be mercy to kill him by gun or a knife.’

    Dana (8e74ce)

  114. Here is an interesting overview of Jordan’s military capability and some insight into Abdullah’s personality.

    And with an army of more than 100,000 well-trained soldiers, tens of thousands more in reserves and a capable air force, Abdullah’s kingdom is more than up to the task, Middle East experts told FoxNews.com.

    “Their ability to do difficult things with small numbers of highly trained people is up there with some of the best militaries in the world,” Jon Alterman, director of the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ Middle East Program, said of Jordan’s military.

    “The king is very serious about being a military guy,” Alterman said. “For much of his life, he thought he was going to be a special forces commander and for some time he was.” “He didn’t do that from the back of chauffeured cars. He did that from Black Hawk helicopters and command posts at the site of terrorist raids,” he noted. “The military is what gets him excited.”

    Well. he’s in it now. I hope his country is united enough to be up to the task.
    http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/02/04/jordan-king-abdullah-formidable-military-force-against-isis-experts-say/?intcmp=trending

    elissa (25bff6)

  115. @111, the Royal Jordanian Air Force doesn’t have any bombers. Fighter-bombers, yes, but in the pic at the link that isn’t a fighter bomber the king is sitting in.

    If I had to guess I’d guess it’s this.

    http://airforcesreview.com/news-article/2011/02/21/117/ATK-to-Modify-Two-Jordanian-CASA-CN-235s-into-Gunships.html

    Jordan’s King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) awards contract to ATK to modify two CASA-235 military transport aircraft with ATK’s new Light Gunship Special Mission Aircraft Capabilities package…

    So basically it’s a smaller, lighter version of the AC-130.

    For the KADDB on behalf of the Jordan Armed Forces, ATK will install and integrate electro-optical targeting systems, a laser designator, aircraft self-protection equipment, and an armaments capability that includes Hellfire laser-guided missiles, 2.75-inch rockets, and a M230 link-fed 30mm chain gun. ATK’s M230 family of guns serves on the Apache helicopter.

    Still pretty freakin’ awesome. Fit for a king, you might say.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  116. “The king is very serious about being a military guy,” Alterman said. “For much of his life, he thought he was going to be a special forces commander and for some time he was.” “He didn’t do that from the back of chauffeured cars. He did that from Black Hawk helicopters and command posts at the site of terrorist raids,” he noted. “The military is what gets him excited.”

    I knew he was for a time a Jordanian special forces commander. Fitting. The MC-235 he’s flying is intended as a special forces aircraft.

    Steve57 (8d38a0)

  117. As Patricia pointed out last night on one of the theads here Abdullah did not expect to be King. He was a child of King Hussein’s first wife and everyone thought his favorite son with his last wife, Queen Noor, (American Lisa Halaby) would succeed him. Hence Abdullah planned for and trained for another life. Then shortly before he died in 1999 Hussein named Abdullah as his heir to the throne.

    elissa (25bff6)

  118. King Hussein was a lot of things, but a fool was not one of them. Especially after Nasser fooled him and the Israelis truthfully warned him. part of the reason for Black September against the PLO etc.

    Looks like he knew more about this son than others thought. And I don’t just mean the recent activity of the present king.

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  119. this is interesting, http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Muslim-clerics-demand-crucifixion-of-ISIS-terrorists-who-burned-Jordanian-pilot-to-death-389959 looks like ISIS has made enemies of the enemies of its enemies.

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  120. I guess it’s different stroke for different folks. I did not say that being burnt alive is fun, what I mean is the shock value it was meant to have was lost on me. If the aim of burning him alive on video was to strike more terror in us it didn’t have that effect on me. But beheading to me is more gruesome and terrifying. And yes that pilot showed himself a true soldier even till the end. He was calm, he knew his fate and accepted it. I felt for him, he didn’t deserve to die that way. No one does. But if ISIL meant for that picture to make me tremble in fear I am sorry it didn’t. I guess they are running out of ideas. And one final question, how does this work in Islam? We know when a jihadist kills an infidel and dies in the process he gets 72 heavily busty and curvy virgins. But when someone like this pilot dies in the hands of his failure Muslims what happens to him there? Does he get std infected ones?

    The Emperor (0af4a6)

  121. Correction! Fellow Muslim’s and not failure Muslims. Damn this autocorrect app. But in a way “failure Muslim” might be correct. 🙂

    The Emperor (0af4a6)

  122. re #111: hmm, nothing at http://jordantimes.com/ about attacks by Jordan on anyone, it is about 11am there now.
    not so sure about a source called ‘weasel’.

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  123. re #120: i didn’t watch it or view pictures of it. it didn’t make me ‘tremble in fear’ but disgust me and made me hope the Jordanians would take direct action against ISIS. and hopefully be joined by a couple of other Arab states.

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  124. 48. Our role will be hand-wringing and cautious discussion of possible options until there are no possible options available to the cautious.
    Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/3/2015 @ 8:38 pm

    And, we’re off!

    http://hotair.com/archives/2015/02/04/former-cia-2-it-will-take-100000-ground-troops-to-defeat-isis-and-that-will-simply-does-not-exist-here/

    You might as well send the WH chef out to talk about military matters as Mike Morrell. But as he has demonstrated, he is of the Susan Rice school of Obama lackeys, court toadies, and arse kissers.

    100,000 is ridiculous and stupid number. 100,000 of the half trained Syrian “moderates” Prom Queen is pinning his hopes on.

    Oh, wait. We’re only training, what, 5,000? Why even bother if it would take 20 times that number.

    it would take nowhere near that number of US ground forces to defeat ISIS. ISIS itself doesn’t even have 100,000 men. Maybe half that.

    100,000? What kind of air force does ISIS have? Armor? Artillery?

    They’re pulling this number out of their rectums just like Obama made up the “99.9%” of Muslims who want the exact same thing we want. He really does believe his own BS.

    One thing is true. The will to take on ISIS does not exist. In the WH. So they’re making up a number big enough to make the task look overwhelming when it isn’t. And they’re sending out some inside the beltway, cocktail-circuit CIA dude because the LHMFM can be fooled into thinking that makes him some sort of expert on military matters. And that gives President Yorkie Terrier cover.

    You could without a doubt defeat ISIS with 30,000 US infantry. Plus armor, plus artillery, plus air power.

    But that would be a reasonable number. President Prom Queen needs it to sound like an impossible task.

    That way he can keep doing what he has clearly intended to do from the start. Just kick this can down the road until the end of his second term and let someone else deal with it. That’s why he’s only training 5k Syrians. He got pressured to train an opposition, so he trained a drop in the bucket. Just enough to get people off his back. Just enough to show he was never serious about any of this. He just has to keep doing as little as possible. Train a few token troops. Lie about how he really, really wants to “degrade and destroy ISIS.” But it’s just too hard.

    Of course as this thing metastasizes the cost in lives will have gone up. But he’s never given a s***.

    Steve57 (f0ee0c)

  125. Actually 30k US infantry would be overkill.

    Steve57 (f0ee0c)

  126. @Steve57
    Do you think sending US troops there to fight ISIS won’t be exactly what they (ISIS) want as a galvanising tool to rally more disaffected Muslims to their cause? You remember how it was when we last went their under Bush and how the insurgency was calling the US invasion an invasion to conquer Iraq. Thing is, these people aren’t worth the effort. You are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. There are lots of “moderate” Muslims who hate ISIS but hate America more. Once you send troops there they will join ISIS to fight us.

    The Emperor (ecae02)

  127. In which I quote myself:

    94. …So for now we’re stuck with going after the ISIS leaders.

    Whoops. I meant Jordan is stuck with going after the ISIS leaders. We’re stuck with Prom Queen.

    Steve57 (8d38a0) — 2/4/2015 @ 1:02 pm

    I did underestimate this preezy in one regard. I didn’t expect him to deploy the head-detonating, intelligence-insulting excuse-making team this rapidly.

    Well, they’re getting lots of practice.

    Steve57 (f0ee0c)

  128. @126, good. Get them all in one place. They’re easier to kill that way.

    We wouldn’t be doing it for them. No more nation building. No more helping hands.

    That was the problem with Bush. Defeating these people isn’t hard. What’s hard is laboring under the delusion that you can build a functioning democracy at all. And what’s harder is laboring under that delusion while trying to fight the insurgency at the same time.

    But we are going to have to kill them eventually, for our own sakes, and I can’t think of better terrain to do it than the terrain they’re in. The only reason ISIS appears powerful is because they control a lot of territory. And they only control a lot of territory because it’s hot, flat, and largely empty.

    Steve57 (f0ee0c)

  129. Bush rushed into a USAID project while there was a war left to fight.

    Steve57 (f0ee0c)

  130. Your advice would sound good, Emperor, assuming we never plan on learning from our mistakes. Both in Iraq and Afghanistan we terrified the bejeesus out of the enemy and practically destroyed them.

    Practically.

    Then we blew the whistle for half-time and started setting up the quagmire, which we then wallowed in for the rest of the decade.

    And the insurgencies started slowly at first because our shattered enemy couldn’t believe that we, stupidly, weren’t going to take just a little bit more time and annihilate them first.

    But I know. This is a pipe dream. Obama is never going to do anything except give ISIS fighters student visas.

    Steve57 (f0ee0c)

  131. You don’t exchange a dictatorship with a democracy in a volatile, crazy place like that. What Bush needed to do was to remove Saddam and replace him with a better “Saddam”. It’s more of the divide and rule principle. And you are right Steve, if we are gonna hit these people we should be ready to go all the way. Just like treating and infection with antibiotics; you have to finish the dosage or risk developing antibiotics-resistant infections. I think Iraq is a clear case of an antibiotics-resistant disease that just won’t go away. We started the treatment but didn’t finish it.

    The Emperor (0af4a6)

  132. ISIS first made the news by lopping off the head of an aid worker. Then they got press by lopping off the head of another aid worker. Then they got more press by lopping off the head of a journalist. Then another journalist. And another. And another.

    I have a radical idea. How about instead of sending aid workers with truckfulls of meds, food, and camera crews, to be hijacked, stolen, tied up, held for ransom, or murdered, how about we send them nothing?

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  133. How about those moderate muslims who hate America almost as much or more than they hate ISIS, how about we send them nothing. Nothing for ISIS to steal and hand out to their supporters.

    That sounds like a good plan to me.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  134. That and you can keep bombing them if you want, but it’s not really a priority.

    papertiger (c2d6da)

  135. –CNN has stuff this morning on the airstrikes by Jordan–against ISIS–in Syria.

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/05/world/isis-jordan/index.html.

    elissa (98b221)

  136. re #135: odd, still nothing at http://jordantimes.com/ about attacks

    ah, but here is a short Reuters report http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/05/us-mideast-crisis-jordan-jets-idUSKBN0L91G920150205

    odder and odder …

    seeRpea (9a7f2e)

  137. @135, it could well be that King Abdullah is trying to play down the strikes domestically to avoid inflaming tensions. As much as I admire the King’s bravery, the internal jihadist threat discussed earlier is real and he is going to have to do a fine balancing act.

    Steve57 (f0ee0c)

  138. It could be the LHMFM is downplaying the Jordanian airstrikes so as not to make the weak-kneed sissy boy in the White House look like a weak-kneed sissy boy in comparison to Abdullah.

    nk (dbc370)

  139. There’s nothing the LHMFM can do. Prom Queen is a weak-kneed sissy boy compared to my Miniature Pinscher.

    Yes, I have a Miniature Pinscher. What about it? She’s a rescue dog who keeps my hunting dog company. He was lonely after my English Springer died.

    But actually she’s pretty cool, and she knows more about leadership than King Putt ever will.

    Steve57 (f0ee0c)

  140. I hope you don’t talk about your survivalist recipes in front of the poor dog.

    nk (dbc370)

  141. For anyone else (like me) who is interested in what may be going on inside Jordan right now, this linked article from British media is worth a read. There’s an emphasis on heavy emotion, but it seems to report some balance of opinion. Here are a few paragraphs.

    The day after the horrific images of the caged pilot being burned alive were released, the streets of the capital Amman were subdued, except for the crowds that lined the road from the airport to the royal palace to welcome home their monarch King Abdullah from his shortened visit to Washington. Privately though, inside tea houses, universities, shopping malls and restaurants, people seethed. Radio and television stations played patriotic hymns on high rotation and all 23 minutes of the gruesome images were being widely circulated on social media. Occasionally, passions flared. “I swear to God we will kill all those pigs,” said Musab Ibrahim, from inside a cafe in Amman’s Old City. “Whatever it takes to finish them is what we will do.”

    On a nearby table, four men interrupted a card game to condemn the executioners and eulogise Kasasbeh. “He is our son, he is a hero. All of Jordan is with him and with our king,” said Yousef Barghouti, a primary school principal.
    ….
    Ghader Shathra, a nurse, said she had been numbed by the news and the reality that it would likely lead the country to war. “We have watched as the region has disintegrated. We have taken in almost 2 million refugees and we have hoped it wouldn’t come our way. But sometimes you have to stand and fight. We have no option.”

    “All the state’s military and security agencies are developing their options,” said spokesman Mohammed Momani. “Jordan’s response will be heard by the world at large but this response on the security and military level will be announced at the appropriate time.” The statements were enthusiastically received, as were the flyovers of F-16s – the same fighter jet flown by Kasasbeh before he was downed over the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa. The jets soared across Amman and Kasasbeh’s hometown of Karak, 87 miles (140km) south of Amman where his grieving parents received condolences.
    “I taught my son to serve the kingdom and he did,” said Saif al-Kasasbeh. “He became one of the best pilots and he devoted his life to defending the country. Muadh is a son of Jordan and I ask the king to deliver his promise to take revenge. I call upon the international community to destroy Isis, which has nothing to do with Islam and its principles.”
    ….
    This week’s events have transformed how Jordanians are thinking about the fight against Isis, as much of an enemy of Syrian rebels as it is of the Hashemite kingdom. “Before killing Kasasbeh, my opinion was we should not be involved in this war,” said Omar Abdul Hamid, 35, from Zarqa, near Amman. “But now I’ve changed my mind. We absolutely have to fight them.” Saed Ghani, 53, added: “The people of Jordan are now more united than ever.”
    ….
    Some, however, doubted that Jordan could safeguard the country by taking the fight to Isis. “We need to stop getting our country into adventures that can bring a lot of problems to us,” said Mohammed Issa, 25. “We have enough problems already.”

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/04/isis-muadh-al-kasasbeh-death-jordan-revenge-mood

    elissa (a34092)


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