The Press and Martyrs

I’m tired of hearing about the press’s fears of turning terrorists into martyrs. The press is constantly skeptical about fighting insurgency because of their overinflated fears of turning the criminal terrorists into martyrs. We constantly hear, about the “danger” of killing Al-Sadr because he would become a “martyr.” The same is true with Arafat, but it always used with every Muslim terrorist. The press said the same thing about the old Hamas “spiritual leader” that Israel waxed several months ago. Have the Palestinians done anything differently, before or after? Well, if anything, the 3rd new leader of Hamas (after Israel waxed the second one) has stayed underground. Contrary to press footage of several Iraqis protesting with the same dire photo of Al-Sadr pointing his finger, they Medhi army probably doesn’t have popular support.

What is probably true, is the longer Al-Sadr hangs around, the more importance he gets in the eyes of the world and the press. If the US had killed him a year ago, he would be have been blip in the pages of the press. Although I don’t think there’s a danger of martyrdom, there is a danger of Al-Sadr becoming “important”, like a Yasser Arafat, jr. He would then be much harder to get rid of.

Although eager to show themselves capable of crushing Iraq's bloody Shiite and Sunni insurgencies, Allawi and the U.S. want to avoid turning Sadr into a martyr in the eyes of his followers or harming the mosque, which could enrage Shiites the world over. Yahoo News