The videotaped beheading of photojournalist James Foley shocked us, but it should not have. The Islamic fascisti such as ISIS have always preyed on the innocent and defenseless. Twelve years ago, a like group of barbarians kidnapped and murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. They did the same to him as ISIS did to Foley: an innocent American reporter was kidnapped, held incommunicado, and then beheaded on videotape for the propaganda and shock value.
History abounds with such events, barbaric murders on scales both large and small. A particularly notable one began one hundred years ago tonight.
In its murderous rampage through Belgium at the outset of World War One, the German army commonly committed mass murders of civilians. As historian John Keegan recounts, 211 were murdered in the town of Andenne, 384 in Tamines, and 612 in Dinant. And then, on the night of August 25, the Germans began the burning of Louvain.
In Keegan’s description, three days of sacking and burning left the Fifteenth Century town deserted. More than 200 civilians were murdered, 42,000 forcibly evacuated, and the library of 230,000 books — Louvain was “the Oxford of Belgium” — was burned. For three days, the Germans rampaged and at the end the town was in ruins.
These atrocities weren’t conducted by special troops of barbarians. They were committed by several of the most elite Prussian regiments. Whatever seed of evil existed in their minds lived on in the death squads of Hitler’s SS and Gestapo which were also comprised of ordinary Germans. It was a big step between Louvain and Auschwitz, but not a step that was too tall for ordinary soldiers to climb. Ordinary Japanese soldiers, at least officers armed with swords, took pleasure in decapitating American prisoners. What they did was the same as what ISIS did to Foley. Evil can become ordinary, even celebrated, within the armies of some nations.
We now have dire warnings about ISIS from the Pentagon and Congress. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has said ISIS is unlike any other terrorist group we have encountered, better funded and even more radical than al-Qaeda, if that is even possible. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Martin Dempsey says we would have to use military force not just in Iraq but also in Syria to inflict major damage on ISIS. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, warns that ISIS is a major threat to us at home. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) says they are developing a method to blow up a U.S. city.