This story.

Editor,

I hope that loved ones of the abductees profiled in the story linked to below do not read it. I can only imagine how heart-wrenching it would be for them if they did.

For the rest of us, I can't quite figure out what our intended response is supposed to be. Are we being enraged for another round of escalation in our war against evil incarnate?

The fact is that war is horrible, brutal, violent, savage, murderous, sickening, disgusting, horrendous. Add whatever stomach-turning adjectives you like.

The USA rounded up and tortured thousands of Iraqis, thousands of Afghans, still has prisoners cleared years ago of any crimes being force-fed in Guantanamo, blows human bodies to bits with drones, bombs, and all manner of weaponry spawned in the most depraved corners of the human mind.

This is why you do not go to war. People you bomb fight back, and they use the means at their disposal. Terrorist acts, like beheading innocent people on video, are calculated to provoke a response.

Among the hundreds of thousands of horrible, unnecessary deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria (to name just 3) since 9/11 a reader has to ask why the deaths recounted here were showcased by the people who perpetrated them and are dissected again and again by the press.

Anyone with a shred of decency has to be asking how violence in the Middle East can be deescalated. Stirring people's juices for more war is another variation on the theme this story reports.

Re: "The Horror Before the Beheadings " (10/26/2014)