# Al Jazeera reporting the beheading of the South Korean hostage **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 22, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665 "2004-06-22T16:58:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/1 "2004-06-22T16:58:57Z")
So new I can’t find a link to it…I heard it on the radio, and Drudge has an italicized red statement…no info yet. I’m getting real tired of this shit. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/2 "2004-06-22T17:04:08Z")
Terrible. Getting you know who out of power has certainly reduced terrorism hasn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/3 "2004-06-22T17:06:29Z")
Get used to it ☹ It’s going to be happening for a long time IMO. It may slow down but there will be terrorists and “freedom fighters” active in Iraq for a long time to come. These guys think they are fighting the good fight. The new gov. will have to deal with them even when all westerners leave which also isn’t going to happen for a while yet. Poor bastard :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/4 "2004-06-22T17:15:27Z")
Damn! I’m just glad S. Korea had the cajones to stand up to those mo-fo’s as well. Sending another 3,000 troops to Iraq in the face of the proposed execution certainly sends a message to someone…I hope. Can’t we all just get along? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/5 "2004-06-22T17:16:25Z")
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR Does _nobody_ happen to remember that when “we” won WW@, _we_ kept armies of occupation in Germany and Japan for a _significant_ number of years, and there was acctually some low level ‘terrorism’ going on by the respective natives? Only difference now is we can’t just take them out back and shoot them with “relative” impunity nowdays. IIRC we finally pulled the army of occupation out of Japan in IIRC the early 60s…I seem to remember an uncle having a 60s vintage army of occupation patch and he was in japan in the 60s. They will keep taking hostages and beheading them no matter how _outraged_ we act or whinge in the news. Might as well take the old viewpoint towards hostages. You got them, you kill them - we aren’t doing anything _you_ want to get them back. Deal with it. It will seriously suck in a big way if it ends up being mrAru, but I put up with 15 years of his possibly not returning from any particular ships movement, I can deal with it if he goes to work as a contracter over there. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/6 "2004-06-22T17:20:20Z")
[http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040622/D83C6AO00.html](http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040622/D83C6AO00.html) Still no confirmation from coalition forces. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/7 "2004-06-22T17:22:02Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#): > > Damn! > > I’m just glad S. Korea had the cajones to stand up to those mo-fo’s as well. Sending another 3,000 troops to Iraq in the face of the proposed execution certainly sends a message to someone…I hope. If they had real cajones they would stand up to Bush, and get their people the fuck out. Not to appease the terrorists, but because they don’t belong there in the first fucking place. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/8 "2004-06-22T17:30:09Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > You got them, you kill them - we aren’t doing anything _you_ want to get them back. Deal with it. I know I’m going to get flamed for saying this, but I can’t help thinking that if Spain hadn’t pulled out in the manner that they did, the hostage takers wouldn’t feel so emboldened against lesser members of the coalition. I’m not saying Spain shouldn’t have done what their perogative was. I just felt that they emboldened them by clearly showing them a cause and effect. I do think that the best way to deal with hostage takers and blackmailers is to not deal with them at all. And don’t allow their actions to influence policy. It may look callous in the short run, but if it’s known throughout the world that such actions will get you nowhere, eventually some pressure will come from their base of support to cease a worthless excercise. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/9 "2004-06-22T17:31:24Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > If they had real cajones they would stand up to Bush, and get their people the fuck out. Not to appease the terrorists, but because they don’t belong there in the first fucking place. The terrorists won’t see it that way. They will see it as “We killed a civilian, and the soldiers ran like dogs.” Like it or not, we’re there, and we better finish the damn job, otherwise we’ll never have peace. You can’t reason with monsters like these. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/10 "2004-06-22T17:39:25Z")
The most geneous estimates say that if all of these Wahabbist jihadist fascist sons of bitches were rounded up, they would fit into a standard European soccer stadium with room to spare. The last thing that the 5,999,950,000 good people in the world need to do is anything that can remotely be deemed as capitulating to a bunch of thugs whose number doesn’t even match that of a small midwestern U.S. town. Pulling out isn’t the answer. Exterminating these _creatures_ is the answer, starting with Al-Zarqawi. If I may be cliche enough to quote a movie, we take the fight to them. They _think_ they’re justified going after civilians? We _know_ we’re justified in going after craven murderers. First thing we do, I say, is get every contractor in the region, and arm them. You want to take another Lockheed Martin engineer or another translator? You get through their machine gun first. You want to try to bomb a compound in Saudi? Be prepared for your vehicle to be taken out with by RPG. Now is not the time to turn tail, nor the time to show anything other than unrelenting strength of will and purpose. Give them no quarter, not even an inch. They think jihad is so honorable? They think death is so damned glorious? They can have it. ---
**Author:** ![Heloise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e36b37/32.png) [@Heloise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heloise)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/11 "2004-06-22T17:48:19Z")
[It’s been confirmed.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3830843.stm) I pretty much expected it, but had that small bit of false hope that they might be able to work something out. This, as well as the other two men beheaded, makes me so discouraged of this entire situation. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/12 "2004-06-22T17:53:14Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > The terrorists won’t see it that way. They will see it as “We killed a civilian, and the soldiers ran like dogs.” So the alternative is to do the _exact opposite_ of what we should really do, just to flip them the bird? Fuck that, Spain listened to their people, They’re out of the damn country They’re no longer wasting money on Iraq Their troops are out of harms way in Iraq Their presence in Iraq is no longer creating new enemies. They’re free to focus their resources on the _actual_ enemy that struck them. They’re no longer pissing in the face of the international community who is mostly against this endeavor. We could learn a few things from them. > [@](#): > > Like it or not, we’re there, and we better finish the damn job, otherwise we’ll never have peace. You can’t reason with monsters like these. You’ll realize sooner or later, that we started a job that has no ending. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/13 "2004-06-22T17:54:03Z")
I wonder if they’re getting more desperate, now that the handover is drawing near. Before they let those Japanese hostages go. And Paul Johnson wasn’t even in Iraq…he was murdered in Saudi Arabia, right? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/14 "2004-06-22T17:56:54Z")
I felt particualrly bad for this guy, as he made no pretense of putting on a brave face: the tape showed him screaming and begging and pleading for his life, obviously terrified out of his mind. We’d all like to think we’d be brave and stoic under those circumstances, but to see him shrieking like a frightened five-year-old really hit home. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/15 "2004-06-22T18:03:35Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > So the alternative is to do the _exact opposite_ of what we should really do, just to flip them the bird? I hardly think we’re just flipping them off. Even the Saudi gov’t is getting into it, killing the terrorists who killed Johnson. > [@](#): > > Fuck that, > > Spain listened to their people, > They’re out of the damn country > They’re no longer wasting money on Iraq > Their troops are out of harms way in Iraq > Their presence in Iraq is no longer creating new enemies. > They’re free to focus their resources on the _actual_ enemy that struck them. > They’re no longer pissing in the face of the international community who is mostly against this endeavor. > > We could learn a few things from them. Like **NurseCarmen** said, I think Spain’s capitulation gave the terrorists a sense that terrorism will work. > [@](#): > > You’ll realize sooner or later, that we started a job that has no ending. I guess I’m an optimist. I think we will win this sooner or later, but we’re not going to win it by cutting and running when things get tough. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/16 "2004-06-22T18:11:19Z")
Anytime terrorists want Spain to do something now, they know the key. Spain’s capitulated. That’s not true for the rest of us. The absolute worst, short sighted_est_ thing we could do now is to abandon Iraq and the mostly decent people in it to these thugs. Gotta stay the course man or all freakin’ hell is gonna break loose over there. It’s going to be tough, painful and quite necessary. This has nothing to do with whether or not going in was the right decision in the first place. Fact is once we did it you have to go all the way. There simply isn’t an alternative that doesn’t invite an even wider ranging disaster. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/17 "2004-06-22T18:14:00Z")
Where the hell is this “Spain caved in the terrorists” urban legend bullshit coming from again? Grow a brain, people. ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/18 "2004-06-22T18:14:08Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Like **NurseCarmen** said, I think Spain’s capitulation gave the terrorists a sense that terrorism will work. As opposed to earlier, when they didn’t think it would accomplish anything? ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/19 "2004-06-22T18:17:31Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I hardly think we’re just flipping them off. Even the Saudi gov’t is getting into it, killing the terrorists who killed Johnson. My point is the right decision is the right decision, sometimes it will give the impression that we’re appeasing them, sometimes it won’t. Don’t you think it would be stupid to avoid a course of action for the sole purpose that we’ll give the terrorists the wrong impression? Like **NurseCarmen** said, I think Spain’s capitulation gave the terrorists a sense that terrorism will work. [/quote] Take a look around, sadly, it seems to be working all too well. > [@](#): > > I guess I’m an optimist. I think we will win this sooner or later, but we’re not going to win it by cutting and running when things get tough. We’ll we’re not going to win by sticking around. This war has already created the next generation of terrorists. We’re going to have some serious fucking problems in the next few decades because of this misadventure. ---
**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665/20 "2004-06-22T18:22:05Z")
No, it’s not a surprise that rotting mass of name, al-Zarqawi, surfaces once again – **The al-Zarqwai letter** — [http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2004/02/040212-al-zarqawi.htm](http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2004/02/040212-al-zarqawi.htm) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/al-jazeera-reporting-the-beheading-of-the-south-korean-hostage/251665.md?page=2)