Beheadings: my friend just asked me an interesting question

[susu369]

why did all the "beheadings of the week" (complete with videos) stop? He wondered why they had stopped - or if they still happen and we just don't hear about them?

Thoughts?

[Rick Myers]

1. They were a psy-op that didn't work out...

Rummy dumped the idea.

[converted_democrat]

8. Remember Nick Berg????

That happened back while I was still a Republican. That was one of the many things that tipped me off that perhaps something was amiss. I am not a racist so please don't take this remark the wrong way. It seemed strange to me that the people cutting off his head were as white as he was. Nick was clearly of Jewish decent and had very light skin. It seemed strange to me that the attackers were of the same skin tone. I think Nick was done in to scare the American public, and I think the job was done by our own.

[mitchum]

14. Exactly

The initial "outrage" generated by them was overshadowed by the reality of people dying.
The same with the story of the contract truckdriver who "escaped from his captors" There was the danger of US taxpayers wondering why a Haliburton employee was being paid $80,000 for a task which could have been performed by a much lower paid member of the military.

[alcuno]

2. It was a fad; tactic of the week sort of thing.

Like all fads, I'm sure it will come back into style.

[salin]

5. or - backlash

the whole effort had two targets - intimidation (to US population, to US contractors and to Iraqis who might work with them) - and to build popular support/recruit (see how good we are at defending ourselves against the US ?) However on the latter front - I think the beheadings were so horrible they had the opposite effect... actually built some level of sympathy for the US and some sort of aversion to joining those extremists. And clearly bushco - rather than being intimidated (nor were the contractors for whom the quick access to US taxpayers money outweighed any intimidation) - instead used it to build public support via public outrage.

So when a tactic suddenly has an opposite effect/backlash - it stops getting used. (Thank Goodness)

[Vickers]

3. Because Uncle George killed all the terrorists BARE HANDED!!!

Yea, go Uncle George!!! No more evildoer catapulting disassembling bad guys!!!

:sarcasm:

[patdem]

4. All of the 'fear factor' propaganda was BEFORE the elections

Now that * is ensconced in the WH...we need no more fear..unless they do away with the 22nd amendment and allow * to run for another term..and need an excuse to steal the elections! :grr:

[Eugene]

6. Suicide bombings and mass executions are more effective for terror

A single beheading just doesn't have
the shock value it used to.

[jobycom]

7. I don't think the beheaders were getting what they wanted

Even their own side was turned off by the brutality, and it weakened their moral cause.

Although, they could still be happening to Iraqi hostages. Remember, our media has made a conscious and admitted decision to not cover Iraq, unless the government releases info on it.

Some have suggested the beheadings were our own psy-ops, and stopped after the election. I don't believe that--but I'm not close to ruling it out, either. Hitler is in charge, and nothing is beneath him.

[Warpy]

9. Bush cheated his way back in

and they were no longer useful.

Anybody who believes the Berg beheading was done by the Iraqis on a live human being is pretty gullible.

[DemonFighterLives]

10. The beheadings are still used by many righties to justify

torture, bombing and whatever else they can think up.
I have a strong belief that some of the beheadings, especially the Nick Berg one were tools of the administration.

[Ms. Clio]

16. I am certain that is the case n/t

[DemonFighterLives]

17. Thanks for the confirmation

:bounce:

We know, but the blind cult followers will never believe it.

[Igel]

11. The videos stopped; beheadings stopped doing their job,

by and large. They didn't properly terrify those who should have been terrified, they didn't properly motivate Arab/Muslims society. They even became slightly counterproductive.

But the beheadings have continued. The Guardian a few days ago spoke of them in one of the bergs in the NW of Iraq, and reports of the occasional beheading pops up here or there. It's not made the focus of any article, and typically shows up in de-emphasized circumstances. For example, recently there were a bunch of Shi'ite guards kidnapped as they were leaving their base for time off. They apparently showed up a few days later, dead (last I heard there was no confirmation that these were the same men, but it seems likely.) Beheadings were buried in the news reports. "21 Shi'ite milita were killed, hands tied behind their backs. 19 were killed by bullets to the back of the head, two were beheaded."

"Smite their necks" is one of the methods prescribed for dealing with some classes of people, infidels and apostates among them; this is taken in some circles to mean beheadings (although in another context it was a ritual smiting of the neck for purposes of humiliation). As long as those folks are in power, have the means, or figure that they serve their puposes, we'll see beheadings. Since beheading a man is a nasty, sometimes difficult business, they've mostly occurred as symbols: kill a bunch of people by shooting, but behead a couple to say why they were killed.

[radwriter0555]

12. They were Mossad run 'ops' ... They really didn't do anything other

than establish that the iraqis were 'terrorists'. So it worked... why continue to do it, if the old lies are effective.

[susu369]

13. Some thoughtful responses here

I appreciate DU and count on it for my news and "schooling."

Off subject: my friend, who is one of the smartest people I know, was not aware of the Downing Street Minutes. Can you believe that?

[Ms. Clio]

15. They served their purpose--neocons and trolls still babble about them

incessantly--it's one way to spot a disrupter here. And I heard some asshole Repuke mention them recently in one of their typical disgusting attempts to rationalize torture.

No doubt a new one will be made available the next time a loud distraction is needed for the Bushistas.