Losing sight of the whole purpose of a national military organization, the editorial staff of the Toronto Star chastises their prime minister, Justin Trudeau, for “celebrating” the more than 2 mile shot accomplished by a Canadian sniper in the war against ISIS which we talked about last week.
However heinous we may find members of Daesh and their sympathizers, they are human beings. They have homes and families and histories. No matter their crimes, their lives are valuable in the sense that all lives are valuable, and deserving of at least some degree of respect.
We revile terrorists largely because they seem to have so little regard for human life. They measure their success by the amount of carnage they cause, and appear to find genuine joy in killing people. That, supposedly, is what sets us apart from them.
That attitude is exactly why we’ve had such a difficult time wiping out the scourge of ISIS. The hand-wringing peaceniks who are unable to face the realities of the world influence the politicians which, in turn, hamstring our military with unproductive rules of engagement.
From a modern vantage point, though, taking such glee in the lethal exploits of our soldiers is cringe-inducing, if not downright ghoulish.
Our understanding of war and violence should have progressed by now, beyond the point where we talk about conflict only in terms of the number of “bad guys” we kill or how well we kill them.
Too much time has already been spent lauding this sniper’s deadly shot, and Trudeau’s apparent satisfaction with the killing seems incongruous for a leader who pledged to return Canada to its peacekeeping roots.
If we have learned anything from the last decade of war against terror, it’s that if we don’t kill them over there, we’ll have to kill them here at home. That might prove difficult in Canada since they’ve disarmed the first line of defense in their homeland – the Canadian citizen. Canada hasn’t been immune from the terrorists’ ire. The terrorist who stabbed a Flint, Michigan police officer recently was a Canadian citizen.
From the Toronto Sun;
Rehab Dughmosh is currently in custody facing seven charges including two counts of assault with a weapon.
The 32-year-old mother of two allegedly entered a Canadian Tire store and, according to what sources told the Sun, became agitated and threatened to kill “white people” to avenge bombings in Syria.
“I’m here for Syria. I’m going to kill everybody,” the woman reportedly screamed. “I want to kill all you white people. I’m from ISIS. I’m from Syria,” she allegedly told shocked onlookers.
“You people are killing my people. You people are dropping bombs on my people.”
Dughmosh allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” — God (Allah) is greater — before swinging a golf club at employees — at the same time of bloody terrorist attacks in London.
Canada’s Global News publishes a list of terrorist attacks in Canada last year.
A Canadian was murdered in the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack at London Bridge last month.
ISIS loves to publicize their blood-thirsty executions of innocents in the areas that they control because of the terror that spreads throughout the world. That’s what they understand. That sniper shot disrupted an attack on our allies, publicizing that success will disrupt other activities, causing ISIS to spend their military assets to prevent the next shot.
Back to the Star’s editorial board;
Canada has just extended its commitment in Iraq for two more years. There will almost certainly be more cases in which it’s deemed necessary for a Canadian to shoot a member of Daesh. There will be more deaths.
But as we approach Canada Day weekend, when millions will reflect on what it means to be Canadian, we have to ask ourselves: Do we want to be the kind of people who celebrate that?
Can the West afford to not celebrate the killing of murderous thugs where they think they’re safe?
