Recent headlines all over the world boast that Sunni clerics have called for the immediate release of four Western peace activists held hostage in Iraq. Why is it news when Muslims call for the release of hostages? Why is it news when any one calls for the release of hostages? The very nature of 'news' is that it documents the unusual, and not the mundane.

Any human being with any amount of decency deplores the kidnapping of civilians in Iraq. They deplore it even more when those hostages are murdered in the name of Islam after a mock sharia trial finds the hostages guilty of 'apostasy', 'collaboration', or of 'spying for the Zionist-Crussadors'. Moreover, any decent human being should deplore these hostage takings and murders regardless of who those hostages are.

If we show our concern by our actions, then many Sunni Muslim clerics, Leftist activists, and even many Christians are not, in fact, decent human beings. Why is this?

Headlines have recently told the story of calls for the release of four Western Peace Activists by Muslim clerics around the world. Joining their call for the release of those activists were former hostage Terri Waite and even a captured al Qaeda operative from his jail cell. In fact, pretty much all the forces opposed the U.S. have joined their united voices in condemning this disgusting act of barbarity.

We, of course, add our voices to those calling for the hostages release. What dismays us, though, is their deafening silence when it comes to the other hostages who are being held or who have been murdered in Iraq. These forgotten hostages have no advocacy groups behind them, and relatively few people seem to care about their plight at all.

Where were all of these Muslim clerics, 'Christians', & Left-wing activists when the Islamic Army in Iraq was threatening to murder Ronald Schulz? The American civilian hostage was murdered in Iraq yesterday without even so much as a blink from those so urgently calling for the release of the four peace activists taken hostage in Iraq: Norman Kember, Thomas Fox, James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden. Where is their outrage?

The duplicity of these groups reveals their inhumanity and gross sense of justice. An American's life is not worth fighting for when he is in Iraq to help rebuild that country. Not a word from Sunni Muslim clerics begging the Islamic Army in Iraq to release him. Not a word from a single Arab leader wishing for the release of a man who was engaged to a Jordanian woman. Not a word from a single 'Christian' group worried about the welfare of a presumably Christian man. Not a word from the Left.

No, these groups sympathies are not with the four peace activists because they are innocent civilians caught by a group of ruthless terrorist thugs. No, the Left-- including the 'Christian' Left -- and Muslim clerics reserve their efforts only to freeing those who they deem 'worthy'. The four peace activists are worthy of their efforts only because they were in Iraq to document abuses by American soldiers and were against the war. Sunnic clerics call for their release not because hostage-taking and murder is wrong, but because they had "condemned the war in Iraq." Had they been four American Halliburton employees, we would hear nothing from them.

The words of Markos Zunigas, from The Daily Kos, describing his feelings about the burnt bodies of American civilians being strung up by a mob in Iraq expresses precisely what these people think of innocent civilians who are not politically alligned with them: "screw them." The depths of their hypocrisy and inhunity knows no bounds.

Lest we forget -- and we would judging by MSM coverage -- there are a number of hostages currently being held in Iraq in addition to the four pacifists who have received so much attention lately. We pray for ALL of their releases because hostage taking and murdering captives is inhumane, immoral, and uncivilized behavior. They are:

German archaeologist Susanne Osthoff
French engineer Bernard Planche
American businessman Jeffrey Ake
American civilian Dean Sadek
American soldier Keith Maupin is listed as MIA.

If we have forgotten anybody, our apologies, but the lack of coverage from the media makes it extremely difficult to follow the plight of any hostage who does not have the sympathies of the Left.

Posted by: Rusty at 03:58 PM | Comments (50) | Add Comment
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Terrorist media outlet Al Jazeera still has this story posted on their website passing on al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri's instructions to his terrorist minions:

Al-Qaida deputy chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has said in a video posted on a website that the network's leader Osama bin Laden is alive and leading the jihad against the West.

In a bid to play down US claims of achieving progress in the "war on terror", al-Zawahiri said al-Qaida was expanding, spreading and getting stronger, and called on supporters to attack oil sites in Muslim countries.

Al-Jazeera said a videotape it aired Wednesday showing Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri claiming that bin Laden was still alive and leading "jihad" or holy war against the West dated back to September.

In the tape, Al-Jazeera said Zawahiri also called for attacks on oil installations, remarks that sent oil prices higher on international markets.

"We got the videotape in September, and back then we aired what we thought were the important parts," Al-Jazeera editor-in-chief Ahmad Sheikh told AFP.

"There was a misunderstanding today, and we aired these extracts today by mistake."

Also posted at The Dread Pundit Bluto.

UPDATE by Rusty Shackleford: Al Jazeera lies, MSM eats it up and reports as fact. U.S. tells truth, MSM skeptical of claims. See anything perverse here?

Posted by: Bluto at 11:40 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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The reality of war is such that it is hell. So, picking a particular weapon--which is no worse (and in fact much less worse and much less indiscriminate) than many others--and then trying to prove that it is 'bad' simply because one doesn't like the sound of the word 'chemical' seems like a kind of semantic sophism not worthy of discourse.

Bill, from INDC Journal, takes apart the White Phosphorous argument:

A. White Phosphorous rounds have a chemical action with the potential to cause really super nasty, icky-sounding wounds.

B. This legal round that has a chemical action with the potential to cause really nasty, icky-sounding wounds can be subsequently exagerrated and spun by partisan ideologues as a "chemical weapon," with the intent of drawing an ironic moral equivalence between the United States and Saddam Hussein's regime.

Right-on Bill. I believe all those IM chats with Jeff Goldstein are beginning to pay off.

Posted by: Rusty at 03:11 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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