Steve Furlong wrote :

mmotyka@lsil.com wrote:

...

Let's see, as far as the Taliban and probably other extremists are concerned, all of Islam is in a life and death battle against non-believers, non-Muslims, namely a bunch of atheist Americans.

The U.S., OTOH, is taking great pains to emphasize that we are not at war with Islam but rather with a relatively small group of extremists.

Here's tidbit regarding the handling of Muslim terrorists: in 1911, General "Blackjack" Pershing was dealing with terrorists in the Philippines. He caught a handful of them, made them dig their own graves, tied them to stakes near the graves, and brought up a bunch of pigs. He told them that the pigs would be slaughtered along with the terrorists, and they'd be buried together, thus not only denying them the benefits of heaven but sending them straight to hell forever. He let one of the terrorists "escape" to spread the word. There was no problem with terrorists the rest of the time Pershing was there. The question is, why shouldn't we do something like that now? It's obvious a significant part of the Moslem world will never love the US, so we should make sure they fear us instead. (Wes Pruden mentioned this in his Washington Times column recently. I haven't found it elsewhere on the Web, but have seen it in print.)

I know the story. That was the Moro tribe, right? There was also a story of a prisoner having been wrapped in a fresh pigskin and hanged. Shortly after 911 I suggested that the US publicize video clips of its forces dipping bullets in pig's blood and painting pigblood deathheads on cruise missiles and preparing boxcar-sized piggery and slaughterhouse runoff aerosol bombs. Rumors of pork-only meals in US prison camps. The whole dying unclean thing... It may or may not work - I don't know how serious these guys are about their religion. Should the leaders be more worldly they might struggle with their texts to devise a palatable philosophical out for their field soldiers. All in all it's a funny idea though. Mike