WHY DECAPITATION

Chopping off heads has become routine for ISIS. They kill many. Not all by decapitation, however. Significantly more are shot to death than lose their heads.

It used to be that severing the head from the body was done by a swift swing of a sword or ax. Then there was the guillotine. 

ISIS today uses a small knife. The perpetrator saws through the victim's neck. It is not a swift procedure. Takes about a minute.

We live in a digital age. The terrorists are then able to flash a video of the execution world wide.

Why this method of execution? Why not a shooting? Why not the swift swing of a sword?

Terrorist experts suggest three reasons.

The first is that ISIS wants attention. Prior to head chopping / neck sawing, terrorists relied on plane hijackings, car bombings and suicide bombings. The three events became so commonplace that the world wide media was giving less and less attention to them. Less attention to the act meant less attention to the cause.

The second reason is that the Koran mandates decapitation. This is questionable. However, there are a few brief passages in the Koran to support the position. The most relied on can be found at Sura 47.4.....When you meet unbelievers, smite their necks. Perhaps also the basis for when Christians are captured and given the choice to convert or die.

The third reason is sick. Some of those sawing away at the victim's neck actually relish the act. It is emotionally pleasing. The reaction has been described as an intimate moment.

The United States and the Western Democracies view with horror the decapitations. Middle East societies become more fearful of ISIS.

Certain terrorist experts believe that if decapitation were to become as common place as hijackings, car bombings, and suicide bombings and receive less media attention, that ISIS will be responsible for less and less beheadings.

Let us hope so. May we get there sooner than later.

PUTIN THE WINNER SO FAR

Putin invades Ukraine. He says it is neither him nor Russia. He lies. The world knows he lies. He gets away with it.

I suspect Putin's move into Ukraine was the beginning of a new cold war. What has transpired since suggests it. Recently, former Russian President Gorbachev said the world was on the brink of a new cold war. He even went so far as to say the cold war may already have begun.

The United States and several other nations imposed severe sanctions on Russia for the Ukraine invasion. Russia hurt. Its economy was in trouble. Putin reacted.

In May, Putin announced a signed agreement with China. Russia will build a new gas line from Russia into China. China will buy gas from Russia for 40 years. This agreement came at a time when Putin was being threatened with a cut back in gas purchases from certain European nations.

Putin did not flinch. Even though gas exports make up 75 percent of Russia's exports. He merely went and made a deal with the country no one thought it possible to make such a deal. China.

A major Asian meeting was conducted in China last week. Every one there. Including Putin and Obama. Putin announces a second big gas deal with China. This one a thirty year deal whereby Russia builds a second gas line into China and China agrees to buy $400 billion worth of gas over 30 years. This second agreement will make China Russia's biggest gas customer. Bigger than all the European nations combined that Russia now supplies.

Immediately, Putin was the man of the hour at the Asia meting.

Putin makes another announcement during the time of the meeting.

The sanctions are having a crippling effect on the Russian economy. Russia announced that Chinese lenders have agreed to provide Russia's state     Sberbank $2 billion in financing. The money is intended to make up for the European financing cut off by sanctions.

Now comes another announcement last week. Russia and Iran have signed a new partnership agreement to build eight nuclear reactors for Iran. This announcement came days before the November 24 deadline for an Iranian decision regarding a nuclear pact with the United States and five European countries. While Obama's people were negotiating for a deal to limit Iran's nuclear efforts, Putin arranges to build eight new nuclear reactors for Iran.

Putin is doing well on the world stage. In six months, he has come up with the major deals mentioned.

What has Obama accomplished? Obama came out of the Asisa meetings with an agreement with China to curb fossil fuels. The world two biggest polluters are the United States and China. 

Per the agreement, the United States has to show performance results four years before China. This is not a you show me yours and I will show you mine situation. Additionally from what I have been able to garner, the agreement does not contain binding language. It is phrased in what the parties intend to do. 

Concededly the sanctions are working. However Putin has refused to buckle under. Instead, he has come out swinging and accomplished several big things. Obama has the sanctions and a wishy washy environmental agreement with China to show for his efforts.

If this were a heavy weight championship boxing match, Putin thus far is decidedly the winner. It is time for Obama to get up off the canvas and come out swinging.

GROWING DOPE MAKES SENSE

Two Middle East countries have been part of United States war involvement in recent years. Afghanistan and Syria. Military wars, directly and indirectly. Simultaneously, there has been a second war being fought by the United States in both countries. The war on drugs.

Afghanistan is a country that has generally been overrun by foreign powers. As far back as recorded history takes us. Alexander the Great and then Genghis Khan. In modern times, foreign nations waging war. Most recently, Russia and the United States.

The United States has had boots on the ground in one fashion or another for thirteen years. Billions have been spent in dollars and thousands in lives by the United States. At the same time that the military war was being fought, the United States has waged the war on drugs.

Afghanistan is home to opium. Poppy fields galore. These farms work full time producing opium. Three million Afghanistan citizens are employed. Last year's production was record high. Five thousand five hundred tons of opium grown on 516 acres. The yield $3 billion. A tidy sum.

Opium becomes heroin and finds its way to the streets of the United States. Billions have been spent to eradicate the heroin problem at its source. To no avail.

Billions spent by the United States in the military war and additional billions in the drug war.

 

The United States has been unsuccessful in the drug battle for two reasons. Karzi and the Pentagon. 

Till recently, Karzi was President for many years. He protected the opium growers. Not because he was a nice guy. It has to have been for money. Corruption is rampant in government, even at the highest levels. On the rare occasions a drug dealer has been arrested and convicted, he went in the front door of the jail, paid a bribe and walked out the back door. All in the same day.

Our drug people have been asking for military assistance for years. Not much has been forthcoming. The Pentagon consistently has taken the position that ".....we do not do the drug thing" and ".....not our job.

Ninety percent of the world's heroin originates in the Afghan poppy fields. The money being made is beyond contemplation. Sixteen new banks have opened in recent years.

A partner in the opium trade is the Taliban. Its aggressive activities against the United States and others is funded by the opium production.

Syria is benefiting big time by the drug trade, also. With Syria, it is marijuana. Pot in all its forms, including hashish. Syria has the reputation of growing the best marijuana in the world. Syria also has the distinction of being the leading producer of marijuana world wide.

Historically, Syria has been occupied over the years by one country or another. Its sole distinction is Paul the Apostle. He was converted on the road to Damascus. Today, Syria has an elected government of sorts. The current Assad and his father before him have been President since 1970.

Millions are involved in the marijuana production. Farmers large and small. All protected by corrupt public officials and farmer armies. Many farmers have their own military forces. They have a reputation of shooting first. No questions ever asked. No one attempts to enter upon the fields where the marijuana is grown.

Farmers could grow vegetables. There is a market. It cannot compete with pot revenue, however. It is also cheaper to grow marijuana. The irrigation of 1/4 acre to grow potatoes costs $1,000. To irrigate a 1/4 field for marijuana $400.

Hezbollah is involved big time also. The profits fuel their terrorist activities.

The thrust of this article is not to write about Afghanistan and Syria making billions of dollars off their drug trade. What motivated me was the fact that while devastating wars have been going on in both countries, the opium and marijuana fields are unscathed. The wars do not touch them.

Think about it. We have all seen on television and in the newspapers pictures of the devastation in each country. Buildings demolished. People running to avoid death. Our soldiers being killed, losing legs and arms.

Yet the opium and marijuana fields go untouched.

It has to be money.

It makes me sick.