String ‘Em Up

“Would love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo but statistically that process takes much longer than going through the Federal system. There is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed. Should move fast. DEATH PENALTY!” – Donald Trump tweet 11-2-17

I get it, I truly do. This guy, this “NYC terrorist” has committed a horrible, unspeakable crime and has not shown one shred of remorse. Actually he is quite proud of his actions. I would suspect his only two regrets are that he didn’t kill more people and that he wasn’t killed himself.

I also understand given the very shallow psyche and the obvious ignorance of “our” President why he wouldn’t feel compelled to use this incident to play to his base who would agree with his call for some sort of vigilante justice. Given his poll numbers, lack of any real legislative success and oh yea Russia why not step over or better yet rip up the Constitution of the United States. Certainly that’s what Vladimir would do.

During World War II the Japanese had a division of their air force referred to as the Special Attack Unit. We called them Kamikazes. As Wikipedia details;  “Kamikaze aircraft were essentially pilot-guided explosive missiles, purpose-built or converted from conventional aircraft. Pilots would attempt to crash their aircraft into enemy ships in what was called a “body attack” in planes laden with some combination of explosives, bombs, torpedoes and full fuel tanks.”

Over the course of the war approximately 3,900 Kamikaze pilots died, and more than 7,000 naval personnel were killed by these Japanese Kamikaze suicide attacks.  Kamikaze pilots believed that their death would pay any debts that they owed and would show their love and respect for their families, friends, and the emperor.

Today we have a new breed of Kamikaze in the form of ISIS and Al-Qaeda. The problem many Americans have is understanding why these two groups are at war with America and to understand that you need to have a better grasp of our, Americans, history of meddling in the Middle East over the last one hundred plus years.

I am currently reading a book, The Profiteers: Bechtel and the Men Who Built the World, which is the story of the Bechtel Company, the guys who built the Hoover Dam, and their role as a pseudo government arm to promote, construct, and protect our governments interest in the oil rich middle east.

It is a fascinating tale of our governments interference with the kingdoms, and regimes of the middle east all in the name of protecting “our” oil supply. Dictators were put in place, supported and even removed to be replaced by someone else of our choosing. Religion and traditions were trampled upon under the guise of modernization, and quality of life to insure Americans had plenty of gasoline for our weekend trips to the beach.

But then something happened, traditionalist emerged from our attempts to Americanize these ancient countries and these traditionalist wanted their religion and their way of life back and Americans out. But we couldn’t just walk away. We had too much invested, too much history, too much pride and we were and are an oil thirsty nation so we fought back and we continue to fight today.

Tweeting that this self-proclaimed ISIS solider should get the “DEATH PENALTY!” will make Trump’s gun-totting, red baseball cap wearing, flag waving, deplorable base scream “Hell Yea. String ‘Em Up” but it won’t solve any of our issues with ISIS, Al-Qaeda or any of the other soon to pop-up extremist Islamic groups. You see these people are fighting for something many of us can’t even comprehend and certainly don’t understand because we refuse to accept or acknowledge it. We assume the rest of the world wants what we got. Hell we are Americans the envy of every living soul on this planet. That is the kind of arrogance we breed, and it is the only kind of arrogance “our” President understands. That is what got him elected, the singular premise of his marketing scheme.

We aren’t winning the war against ISIS as “our” President likes to proclaim because we don’t know or understand who the “enemy” is. We certainly had no idea who Sayfullo Saipov was when he decided to rent a truck from Home Depot and drive down a Manhattan bike path killing eight and injuring others for revenge against the United States. Maybe we will catch wind of the next Sayfullo Saipov, but then again maybe we won’t.

We aren’t going to “win” by dropping more bombs or having more boots in the desert. We need to step back from our arrogance and our American pride and recognize and address the issues ISIS and Al-Qaeda soldiers are willing to die for. What are they? I am sure the list is long but I can tell you what isn’t on that list, the threat of the “DEATH PENALTY!” from “our” President.