[moodyskeptic]

When you get in a fist fight with a vicious but poorly educated criminal who fights dirty, it does you no good to quote Queensbury rules.

This pig tactic has worked historically, it's worth a shot.

[Ronin]

Amen.

And on that lines, one just has to remember the 70s/80sand early 90s and the seemingly endless number of western hostages being held by the Islamofascists in Beirut to get a clue on why the Russians may have the best idea.

Does anyone but me remember what happened when the ragheads decided to grab a Russian hostage to round out their little prison? I do. The Russians immediately sent out their KBG residents backed up no doubt by some Spetznaz troopies and grabbed their own hostages -- including one of the big mucky-muck Mullahs of Beirut.

Once a picture of said Mullah, stripped, bound, gagged and with his privates laying on the edge of a knife was delivered to the ragheads, the Russian hostage was released with apologies.

This is much the same tactic. You don't fight a disease using a vaccine that only kills 90 percent of the virus. All that does is create and refine a vaccine resistant strain of the disease. You don't (or shouldn't) fight a war with one hand tied behind your back or with some idiotic rules of engagement. War is nasty. You need to fight nasty if you want to win.