Joyful: I have seen the Pearl video -- saw it before we ever entered into this digital conversation -- and I find it unnecessary to view again, much as I find it unseemly to dwell morbidly on the details of his slaying. Frankly, that's a sick thing to do.
Don't you understand??! This is what the terrorists are planning to do to you, to your, dare I say the wicked word, children? To your parents? They want to savagely kill everyone who is Christian and Jewish. The terrorist speak for all of militant Islam, when they say on the Pearl video that terror is coming to us.
Daniel Pearl was a reporter who was chasing a story. That it led him into dangerous places was not surprising; as a veteran reporter he knew this, and obviously accepted the risk.
Daniel Pearl was not walking the streets of the United States when he was kidnapped and killed. He was not a random victim of faceless terror. He willingly met with people he knew were radicals, potentially dangerous sources who could (and did) backfire. I'm sorry he died. But to make his targeted slaying the touchstone of your "sky-is-falling" level of fear is really quite unnecessary. Unless you're planning on wandering into Pakistan or Afghanistan anytime soon, in search of a story.
Daniel Pearl's morbid death is not isolated to American daily lives.
Daniel Pearl's death is a "calling card" to all of us. The terrorists said as much. They said Pearl's fate will happen to all Christians, Jews, and other unbelievers. With Saddam Husseins help, they will soon have the means to do it.
"It's a sickly thing to dwell on the Daniel Pearl tape."
The sickly thing is that the threats to every American and Jew made on that tape are real.
The sickly sinister thing is to ignore these threats and refuse to strenghen our security.