Why Some Wars Are So Savage

[Valin]

Hoover Daily Report/WSJ:

Victor Davis Hanson

5/29/13

 

A prominent Syrian rebel commander with the nom de guerre Abu Sakkar recently appeared on YouTube cutting open the chest of a dead government soldier, pulling something out of itthe heart or perhaps a lungand taking a bite. Abu Sakkar claimed that such cannibalism was an appropriate psychological payback for the crimes of Bashar Assad's troops, who have recorded videos of their own atrocities. "I swear to God we will eat your hearts and your livers," Abu Sakkar promises in the gruesome clip.

 

(Snip)

 

*Unconventional and undeclared fightingmarked by terrorism, insurgency and Mogadishu-like irregularsare also force multipliers of atrocity. Professional soldiers, while adept at industrialized brutality, are still more likely than rebels or militias to accept a rough code of conduct. During trench warfare or armor-led attacks and counterattacks, civilians were not as likely targeted or to take up arms. World War I was far more lethal to American troops than was the much longer Philippine insurrection between 1899 and 1913. Yet the latter's primitive slaughter outraged the American people in a way that even the horrendous machine-gunning in Belgium and France had not.

 

(Snip)

 

Neither sideif there are indeed two sides, rather than four or fiveis democratic. Both Syrian soldiers and militias know there is scant chance of postwar punishment for their barbarism. The killing is not merely over the future of Syria: It is also a religious struggle between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, framed by a parallel fight between Baathist authoritarianism and theocratic Islamism.

 

The losers surely expect something worse than defeatall they need to do is remember Hafez Assad's 1982 massacre of rebels in Hama and the city's near-razing to sense what might await. There will be more Abu Sakkars before this savage war is over.

 

 

 

* In other words most wars..see Max Boot

[clearvision]

Hmmm, I do believe when we had our little skirmish with England our fighting methods were considered barbaric and UN-civilized.

[Valin]

Hmmm, I do believe when we had our little skirmish with England our fighting methods were considered barbaric and UN-civilized.

 

 

Not the way Washington wanted to fight it. He was often forced to.