Why We Must Fight

This is why we’re fighting radical Islamists. Greyhawk at Mudville Gazette describes the vicious slaughter of an Iraqi journalist, done not just because she was a reporter and not just because she was a woman who stretched the boundaries of her assigned role in dar al Islam, but also to set an example for others. For all the people on the left who say we must apologize for our “offenses” and find a way to coexist, please understand that you too will be subject to this treatment if the overlords you are currently welcoming actually gain power. There will be no gratitude or tolerance extended to you. And just knowing that the “Rethuglicans” you hate so much are also being murdered will not comfort you when you feel the cold of the blade against your neck. Read this, and consider carefully what you are doing when you appease these people.

Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.

We now know that it was not that swift for Bahjat. First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but particularly so for a pious Muslim who concealed her hair, arms and legs from men other than her father and brother.

Then her arms were bound behind her back. A golden locket in the shape of Iraq that became her glittering trademark in front of the television cameras must have been removed at some point — it is nowhere to be seen in the grainy film, which was made by someone who pointed a mobile phone at her as she lay on a patch of earth in mortal terror.

By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.

It is stained with blood that trickles from a wound on the left side of her head. She is moaning, although whether from the pain of what has already been done to her or from the fear of what is about to be inflicted is unclear.

Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’s depravity after three years of war.

A large man dressed in military fatigues, boots and cap approaches from behind and covers her mouth with his left hand. In his right hand, he clutches a large knife with a black handle and an 8in blade. He proceeds to cut her throat from the middle, slicing from side to side.

Her cries — “Ah, ah, ah” — can be heard above the “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.

Even then, there is no quick release for Bahjat. Her executioner suddenly stands up, his job only half done. A second man in a dark T-shirt and camouflage trousers places his right khaki boot on her abdomen and pushes down hard eight times, forcing a rush of blood from her wounds as she moves her head from right to left.

Only now does the executioner return to finish the task. He hacks off her head and drops it to the ground, then picks it up again and perches it on her bare chest so that it faces the film-maker in a grotesque parody of one of her pieces to camera.

The voice of one of the Arab world’s most highly regarded and outspoken journalists has been silenced. She was 30.

They were proud enough of their actions to film them for posterity. Feel free to hate half your countrymen and feel free to give input via the ballot on all these matters. But for God’s sake stop the incessant sniping, stop the obstructionism, and put your differences aside for the duration of this fight for our civilization. I’m not just questioning your patriotism. I’m questioning your humanity.