Enemies of Mankind

Hostis humani generis: Literally an enemy of mankind. A nearly archaic-term from admiralty law that held pirates in utter contempt. Similar to the common law concept of “Outlawry” that described those people who operated outside the extent of the King’s law so that these seaborne marauders would be eradicated. Moreover, it was not just allowed, but expected that all nations abide by this decree whether or not they had been attacked.

I cannot think of any other groups that so deserve of this title than the evil that is ISIS, al-quada and the taliban. 

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Some time ago while wasting time on Facebook, I came upon a video on my timeline that started playing automatically – a feature that I detest by the way – I like making the decision whether or not to watch something.  But that is a rant for another day.

Anyway, it was a film clip showing some sort of fuzzy animal inside a small cage with a guy standing next to it holding a container of some sort. With a desert background and squiggly lined captioned it was obviously something from the Middle East. I should have known better, but I kept watching as the man poured the contents of the container over the fuzzy animal and then lit it on fire.

With no way to escape its prison the animal was soon engulfed in flames and frantically thrashed around, slamming itself against the bars in a vain attempt to escape its cruel fate. After a few seconds it slumped down in a quivering mass of burning flesh and soon stopped moving.

As the flames died down the man lifted the cage and nudged the charred remains with his foot as the video faded to black, the animal was most assuredly dead for whatever morbid reason. I quickly closed the screen and wondered what kind of sick bastard would do something so cruel. Then I felt guilty for watching the video. Why didn’t I shut it off before the inevitable? I’m not a sadist. I don’t like inflicting pain – especially on defenseless animals.  How dirty and ashamed I felt for having seen such an atrocity.

Atrocity? Maybe that wasn’t the right word in this case. An atrocity is when something like this happens to a human being such as Jordanian air force pilot that ISIS just murdered. Like the animal I mentioned, Muath al-Kaseasbeh was locked inside a cage and doused with a flammable liquid before his captors immolated him because of Jordan’s part in our loosely knitted alliance. Their claim to legitimacy is that this “eye-for-an-eye” justice was in retaliation for civilian deaths by Jordanian and allied airstrikes.

But, that rationale doesn't explain the beheadings of the numerous aid workers they have murdered. If they are trying to spread terror they seem to be doing it, the number of people willing to put their lives in danger to help the helpless has dwindled to almost nothing. If it is part of their plan to displace vast numbers of people and allow them to die a slow death then they have succeeded.

While any death in combat is a horrible thing, this terrorist group claiming the moral high ground would be laughable if it wasn’t so depraved. This group thinks nothing of tossing a gay man off a seven-story building, hacking off the heads of whomever they please or meting out 12^th century punishment on victims of sexual assault! Their only nod to modernity is to video record the event to be posted on the Internet.

You can’t even call ISIS or the Taliban animals because animals don’t torture their prey – at least not to this debauched extent. How a group of people can become so desensitized to another being’s suffering is incomprehensible and no matter how you try to spin it, these creatures must be eradicated. They must be expunged from the face of the earth using every tool, trick and weapon at our disposal. They won’t be satisfied until the entire world is held in thrall to their twisted religion.  

I haven’t watched the video of Lieutenant al-Kaseasbeh’s execution; I’ve seen enough stills that I don’t think I can bring myself to watch. Seeing him thrash about while his captors shriek and laugh like spectators at a soccer match isn’t something that I’d like to see.

Adolf Hitler only wanted to conquer the world, these degenerates want to conquer both the world AND heaven, forcibly converting all people to their version of islam or be put to death.In some cases conversion hasn't even saved their victims. By all accounts, the former army ranger Peter Kassig had had his own conversion and returned to the Middle East to assist with the massive influx of refuges brought on by the continued and escalating fighting.

It would seem that fellow Muslims have borne the brunt of their violence. Rape, murder and torture is the order of the day with no one safe from the violence. Case in point is Lieutenant al-Kaseasbeh.

The question of his guilt or innocence of war crimes is moot; it was made irrelevant as soon as he was paraded around in that orange jumpsuit. Did he bomb innocent civilians? We shall never know.  The one thing I do know is that he is no longer in the excruciating pain that ended his life. He is at rest and has been made whole again. His war is over and peace reigns where he is now.

He most certainly is not in hell; he’s already been there.