WAR is about KILLING

The movie Letters from Iwo Jima is a very good movie but it could never have been made during the days of the Second World War; the timing would have been all wrong. During the war we did not want to think of Japanese soldiers as being human beings with wives and families and the things that are shared by all sentient beings. During war the prime objective is to kill the enemy as fast and in great enough numbers to entirely wipe him out...so that there is not a chance of him coming back some day and re- initiating retaliation. Ancient civilizations knew this simple fact. Today we seem to forget what they knew; they knew that you don't want to understand your enemy you simply want to dehumanize him and kill him before he can kill you.

I understand and respect the position of Professor Marc Falkoff of Northern Illinois University but I disagree with his timing and maybe his motivation because I cannot read his mind. During a time of war we cannot afford the luxury of trying to understand and show the enemy compassion; our job is to win and to win the enemy has to be dehumanized and made into a beast that needs to be killed and destroyed. It is difficult to kill a fellow human being if you attribute to him feelings of love of family, wife, children and all the good attributes we attach to humanity. Therefore both sides, in war, dehumanize the enemy so that killing can be made easier and less traumatic to the individual doing the killing; it is not a natural act that comes naturally to most of us but has to be taught and drilled into us...thank God.

I believe that the time for understanding, showing compassion for reading his reflections and poetry is after we have won the War on Terrorism. To do so when we are engaged in it would only weaken our resolve and focus on VICTORY, a word that I did not hear once during President Obama's speech at West Point.

Even in Death...Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will have won!

Terrorists are successful if they can instill fear in a worldwide audience. On 9/11 they were successful; over 3000 innocent people died while the event was televised all over the world. It was certainly, in an evil sense, a spectacular and telegenic event; what more could any other terrorist hope for. Well how about 9/11 - Two (a Second Edition), a gift to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed a self proclaimed architect of 9/11 given to him by President Obama and his Attorney General Eric Holder.

This civilian trial has nothing to do with bringing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to justice; he has already admitted to doing what he has been charged with and said he is guilty and accepts the death sentence. So what does this civilian trial have to do with except putting the cross hairs of terrorists on New York City again; it has to do with hopefully increasing the political capital of the President and the Democratic Party in view of their rapidly decreasing approval ratings. They need some circuses to feed to the people to give them a "bump" and increase their ratings presumably before the 2010 elections and 2012 Presidential elections. I think this will backfire because of the following reasons:

• Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be given one of the greatest platforms to spread his vitriol and hatred and profess jihad to the world.
• It will allow his defense attorneys to get through the discovery process all sorts of intelligence material that would put the national security of the United States at risk.
• It would allow his defense attorneys to cross examine witnesses and put them at risk for retaliation and death.
• But most of all it would be a slap in the face of all those innocent victims in the World Trade Center Towers, their families and all the police, firemen and fire women and first responders who gave their lives in the service of their fellow men and women at Ground Zero that day of infamy.

My advice to you President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder is not to proceed with this circus in New York.