Heads We Lose ... Mark Steyn

Steyn Online ^ | 9 Oct 2014 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

As ISIS prepares to take the Turkish border city of Kobani, the new Caliphate's use of social media as a promotional tool (which is rather more effective than, say, the Democrats' or Justin Trudeau's) has begun to inspire what Obama would presumably call the jihad's junior "junior varsity" teams:

Boko Haram, the extremist Islamic group, reportedly beheaded seven people Monday in Nigeria in revenge attacks, which were described by one resident as the way butchers "slaughter goats."

From the report, you might get the impression that that's a figure of speech. But it's literally true. At the end of my piece on the beheading by an infidel-hating Muslim Oklahoman of his female colleague Colleen Hufford, I wrote:

It is not a pleasant way to die, in part because it requires more expertise than you might think. A decade ago, a young lady in my employ emailed a backgrounder on the subject to me in my room at the Grand Hyatt in Amman the night before I set off on my motoring tour of Iraq. If you're lucky, your killer will insert the knife from the side, the sharp edge pointing to your front. One skilled thrust forward will cut the jugular, the carotid artery, the esophagus - and it will all be over in seconds. On the evidence of their social media videos, the ISIS boys are not that good: They go in from the front, blade facing backward, sawing back and forth for minutes on end.

...

Or as this Euro-jihadist puts it:

I asked him, 'Is it good to kill people?' He said, 'If they're not Muslim, yes.'

Because, if they're not Muslim, they're not really "people". Which is why it is necessary to slaughter them like goats.

[Blue Jays]

At least I learned tactical technique in case I am ever in a knife fight with a jihadist and wish to minimize his or her chance of fighting back!

[Genoa]

Agree totally with Steyn: Obama isn’t serious, and ISIS knows it. (And other nations know it.) He’s bombing just enough to create the appearance of action for domestic political consumption.

[NonValueAdded]

ISIS seem to have grasped instinctively that Obama wasn't serious, that he didn't mean it - and that his handful of desultory air strikes each day were intended to neutralize the issue before November's election, and nothing more.

Hard to argue that is not the case.

[norton]

Steyn is always a good read & sharp analyst, but

Turkey, of course, is a Nato member, and, under Article Five, an attack thereon would be an attack on all - not just on Turkey,

Does not make much sense in light of Turkey having been de-facto sponsor and ally of ISIS from the outset.

Regardless of a few desultory airstrikes by a couple of member states, Turkey has put NATO in a whole different position than Steyn suggests.