Still Deadly...

"Ha, Ha! Hee, Hee!"
Okay – we've all had our laugh.
Or have we?

Everybody is whispering and chuckling over the latest footage of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi fumbling with an automatic rifle in the desert. People actually think this is funny.

"He's so dumb! He can't even shoot a rifle and clear a jam!"

"Ha, ha, he needed help from that other guy!"

"How tough is he supposed to be? His gun jammed!"

Trust me when I say, I am far from defending this piece of trash al-Zarqawi, but we need to get serious here and stay focused. See, the US media likes to try and spin situations and sway public opinion with little games and things like videos of people's flubs. These stunts are meant to humanize and belittle people – to make them less than what they really are. But, Abu Masab is far too dangerous a man for the American media to trivialize because of a gun jam.

As a person who has [legally] fired a high powered automatic rifle – on fully auto – there are certainly a million other 'more funny' things that can happen than a jammed weapon. And needing someone to clear a jam for you is certainly not a funny matter. So frankly, it makes the US media and the Bush Administration look desperate and scared when they have to resort to that kind of footage as an effort to shame our enemies.

Just because this man didn't know how to clear a rifle, it makes him no less dangerous. Just because this man didn't know how to clear a rifle, it doesn't make the thousands of people he's killed any less dead. Just because this man didn't know how to clear a rifle, it doesn't bring him any closer to capture by our forces.

Let's give George W an H&K MP5 and send him off to the range with a couple thousand rounds and see if he can clear a jam. Maybe we should give Dick Cheney a… nevermind – bad example! Maybe we should give Donald Rumsfeld and Dr. Condi Rice a couple of RPK74's or L86's and let them have at it for awhile and see how they handle jams. I'm willing to bet that they'd look about as inefficient as al-Zarqawi. And yet – seeing them with jammed guns would make them no less powerful and no less hungry for war and power.

When it comes to people like Zarqawi, we need not try to shame them by showing them having jammed weapons and needing help. We need to shame them by hauling them into American court rooms; we need to shame them by hauling them into the Hague; we need to shame them by putting bombs on them and bullets in them. We need to stay focused and stay serious. This is not the time for games.

TTBM