THE INVOICE OF FEAR This Hasan execution debate has exposed something ugly in us. We keep talking about what the islamist enemy might think. "What if they make him a martyr! What if they use the footage! What if they get angry! What if they hate us more!" Take this from a GWOT veteran sick of hearing this shit: They already hate us. That is the part nobody wants to say out loud because it makes the whole ritual look ridiculous. You don't negotiate a wolf out of hunger by lowering your fucking voice. If fear of terrorist reaction changes how you carry out a lawful sentence, then they are no longer merely your enemy. They are governing you. They own you. That is real power, isn't it? Not theirs on paper. Theirs over YOU, average American. And this is the same weakness we carried into the Global War on Terror on your behalf. We went across the world to fight men who understood violence perfectly while we spent twenty years trying to prove to those same men that we were "nice". Restrictive rules, endless hesitation, leaders promoted for avoiding headlines. Troops asked to close with an enemy while an entire civilization stood behind them whispering, “Be careful how this looks.” Then we wondered why the war dragged on, and on and on. Where has this weak approach gotten us? The military gets its people, its authority, its limits, and eventually its courage from the country that sends it. From YOU! So here is the invoice, America: >You wanted the sheepdog, but you were embarrassed by his teeth. >You wanted victory, but recoiled from what victory looks like. >You wanted the enemy defeated, but remained terrified of offending him. >You wanted warriors strong enough to kill for you and gentle enough to never disturb your conscience. That bill eventually came due. It was paid in deployments, amputations, and flag draped coffins. In men and women coming home older than the years they'd lived. And now, after all of that, I still hear Americans worrying about whether a terrorist might feel inspired by watching another terrorist receive a lawful sentence. You either think western civilization is superior to theirs or you don't. A nation that lets its enemies decide which consequences are too frightening to show has already surrendered a piece of sovereignty to them. A big piece. Power is the rent civilization pays to remain unmolested in a violent world. And fear is what you pay when you refuse the bill. America, GWOT veterans are pleading with you: wake the hell up. Stop acting like men who already want you dead can be appeased by your fear. You’re not preserving peace. You’re just advertising weakness.