Daniel Pearl's Beheading Revisted

This article, originally published in 2002, seems worth re-reading, especially in light of the torture and murder of two members of our heroic military.

New York Post, May 20, 2002
"BARBARIANS!"
by RALPH PETERS
(Ralph Peters is a retired military officer who, when pressed, admits he ismarried to a journalist. His latest book is the just-released "BeyondTerror.")

THE shocking part about the videotape of journalist Daniel Pearl's ritual murder isn't the graphic cruelty of the act. The shocking part is that some among our media elite claim to be surprised by the savagery of the deed.

Where have they been since Sept. 11? For that matter, where have they been for the last 20 years?

Yoo-hoo, Mr. Rather? Is this really news? Don't any of the self-righteous folks at CBS remember the images of Lt. Col. Higgins hanging by his neck in Lebanon? How about the Marines killed in a Beirut barracks, or the airmen lost to a terrorist bomb in Saudi Arabia? Didn't you see those clips of the naked corpse of a U.S. soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu? How about the sailors burned to death on the USS Cole?

Or were you outraged, at last, because Mr. Pearl was a journalist and the butchers you are ever so careful not to offend in your newscasts didn't play fair?

I know the lives of the men and women who wear this country's uniform don't really count to people like you - except when their deaths offer a woe-is-us, our-military-is-incompetent headline. But since you and all the other blow-dry guys who insist that the camera never blinks present yourselves as America's eyes on the world, you might have noticed that the badlands between Cairo and Karachi are just a tad dangerous, and that gringos aren't particularly welcome at Mohammed's Soda-Pop Saloon.

I am sorry for Mr. Pearl and his family. His murder was barbaric. But barbarism is business as usual among our Muslim enemies and purported allies alike. Yet "responsible" Western media and "responsible" political leaders aren't allowed to call foreign murderers barbarians. We might hurt their feelings. We might even be accused of prejudice against anti-Western, anti-Semitic butchers. Noam Chomsky and Mullah Omar would never forgive us.

If the broadcast media, especially, want to honor Mr. Pearl's sacrifice, they should begin by knocking off the baby-talk. Stop pretending all civilizations are created equal.

The snakepits with United Nations representation that compose most of the Arab world and part of the greater Islamic world revel in bigotry. They teach their children that we Westerners are subhuman. They oppress women (and murder them to sate male vanity), steal from and lie to their own citizens and forbid dissent. They abhor the very notion of tolerance. They offer the world nothing but oil and deadly hatred.

This vicious, degenerate backwater masquerading as a civilization has not created a single world-class university, it develops no technologies, it offers no worthy arts, it manufactures nothing but terrorists - and many, if not most, of its people would gladly see each reader of this newspaper murdered as brutally as Daniel Pearl was murdered.

They would call that a good day's work.

Over the years, our broadcast media have been far more critical of the NewYork Police Department than they have been of those who preach that Jews are devils, that Americans should be murdered in God's name and that Satanic America must be destroyed.

The news exec's phony line is that his network must represent all points of view. Then why haven't we seen the world's really good haters on the air? Why haven't the apostles of mass murder been exposed for what they are? When do we get to see Taliban Talks For Tots?

For decades, Muslim extremists proudly and publicly have said - no, shouted - that they intended to attack us. The broadcast media's response was to focus on the O.J. trial. Yeah, that was a public service.

Trashing America while ignoring foreign evil does not constitute responsible journalism. Take Americans to task when we deserve it. But identify evil for what it is when it leaps out in front of your cameras and shakes its fist.

Let me offer a few points for overly insulated news anchors to think about:

* America is hated by tens of millions of Muslims who are jealous of our civilization's success, horrified by our humane treatment of women, afraid of our freedoms and falling farther behind us every day in every productive sphere - not because of anything we have done, but because they have made bad decisions and reveled in them.

Their disastrous situation is not our fault. It is their own fault.

And, yes: "Hate" is exactly the word for what they feel. They'd be every bit as happy to torture and murder you, Mr. Rather, and to torture, rape and murder your family, as they were elated to slaughter Mr. Pearl.

* We are in a war to the death. This is an unprecedented situation. We are not in a war with Islam, but much of Islam is at war with us. Just as the terrorists of the Middle East and Mid-Asia want to see Israel destroyed, they also yearn (with agonizing impotence) to annihilate America. We are either going to kill our enemies on a much greater scale than we have yet done, or they are going to keep on killing us whenever they can.

* The truth is our great ally, and our open society is our fundamental strength. But making nice with murderers is folly. Our media need to stop worrying about offending Saudi princes and Pakistani murderers and to bring home to Americans the viciousness and cruelty that define the Middle East.

* For millions of Muslims, the visual evidence of Daniel Pearl's death was cause for celebration. For young Saudis, that streaming video production featuring the murder was much better than the latest Star Wars installment. To countless young Muslims, nourished by the hatreds their governments encourage and even sponsor, the tape was thrilling, inspiring evidence that their own shabby empire had struck back.

Over to you, Dan.