Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9468

How about an unmarked grave in Iraq?

I don't know if this is of interest to people here but I thought it slightly so. Civilized morality suggests that we return the body to the mother nation and family (after all, that's what we expect others to do to our dead), but that article makes the excellent point that such a move would almost certainly lead to a huge PR spectacle with associated benefits for supporters of Zarqawi and what he stood for.

So what do you do? Do you do the "right" thing according to the rules of morality, decency, and civilization and return the body? Or play the pragmatism card and make an exception to the values that define your nation "for the greater good"?

Maybe I'm just weasling out of it, but it would be nice to see Iraq make the decision, not the US. And then it would be nice if they made the decision to bury him in a common (not mass!) grave like they bury the rest of the insurgency. Although come to think of it, I don't know what they do with other dead insurgents. If their identities are known, do they send them back to their home countries/ families?

Last edited by Nutrimentia on 06-16-2006 at 04:34 PM

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Registered: Sep 2000
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I just realized that the article requires a free registration to read. I'm torn between the need to make you register to read it or to repost it and make you read an article here. Hell, click below if you want to read it, otherwise, just hit the space bar.


[spoiler] HOW TO BURY ZARQAWI.
Grave Situation
by Emily Hunt
Only at TNR Online
Post date: 06.14.06

Zarqawi's death presents a dilemma for the Bush administration: What to do with his body? The corpse of the terrorist leader is currently under guard in Baghdad, but Zarqawi's family in his home country of Jordan is demanding the return of his remains. The obvious move would be to send Zarqawi's body back to Jordan--either to his family or to the Amman government--thereby making America appear magnanimous in the eyes of the world. But, in this case, the obvious move is also the wrong one.

Handing Zarqawi's remains directly to his relatives would yield a predictably undesirable result: a public funeral that could very well serve to burnish--rather than extinguish--the arch-terrorist's legend. Sending his body to the Amman government instead--a much more likely scenario--would almost certainly lead to the same unfortunate outcome. True, members of King Abdullah's government and many Jordanians loathe Zarqawi, who was responsible for terrorist attacks on their country's soil. But Jordan is also home to a minority of Islamist extremists and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi expatriates--a combustible mix of elements sympathetic to the anti-American insurgency. If the Amman government receives custody of Zarqawi's corpse, these groups--led by his family--will exert enormous pressure to allow a public funeral. If Abdullah refuses, he would open himself to criticism at home, and perhaps invite terrorist reprisals as well. For these reasons, he would almost certainly allow a public funeral to go forward.

What would a Zarqawi funeral look like? His family has said he deserves to be laid to rest as a martyr, meaning his funeral would be a jubilant affair drawing thousands--maybe more--to celebrate his passage into paradise. (Much like the 2004 burials of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah and Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza.) Al Jazeera and other satellite channels are sure to broadcast images of Zarqawi's followers paying homage to him. This would provide a source of comfort and encouragement to radicals and likely inspire similar fetes in other Muslim countries. The scenes would circulate on the Internet for months, resulting in a sustained public relations victory for Al Qaeda. In addition, a celebration-cum-burial could deepen existing divisions--and maybe provoke violence--in Jordan, where Zarqawi is alternately hated and revered.

Moreover, permitting Zarqawi to have a funeral would mean that he would be laid to rest in a marked grave that would probably become a shrine for radicals. Over the years, the legitimization provided by a public grave would help to feed hero-worship surrounding Zarqawi, establishing his personal saga as a source of inspiration to future generations of would-be terrorists.

Fortunately, there is a better option: burying Zarqawi in an unmarked grave somewhere in Iraq. This would provoke a certain amount of international criticism, but that seems an acceptable price to pay to avoid a full-blown public funeral in Jordan.

The case for burying Zarqawi's body in an unmarked grave is, first and foremost, strategic: For one thing, it is imperative that America do everything in its power to stunt the growth of Zarqawi's mystique and hinder his exaltation; for another, doing so would spare our allies in the Jordanian government a major headache (and indeed, Jordanian officials have made clear that they do not want the corpse). But at a moral level, it is also worth pointing out that such a burial would leave Zarqawi no worse off than plenty of his victims. After all, the bodies of many of those he bombed and beheaded were never found.

Emily Hunt is a Soref Fellow in Terrorism Studies at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

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Registered: Apr 2004
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Perhaps his followers would relax a bit after a celebration-cum-burial. Perhaps they don't need more reasons to bomb stuff. It's a great opportunity for USA.

I'm disappointed there's no poll.

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Registered: May 2006
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I agree that it is a great opportunity for the Americans, but i suspect, as you say, these fundamentalists wouldn't see it as a gesture of good will, and carry on regardless.

Personally i think the Americans should throw him in a hole in the desert. This is all he deserves and, as the article says, a lot of his victims bodies were not found.

Does the Geneva Convention not have something to say about this?

Why is this an American decision alone?

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Sedona, Arizona
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In a hole filled with pig entrails.

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Registered: Sep 2001
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Since when has the US payed attention to the Geneva Convention?

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Registered: Aug 2001
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Bury him like all the other dead insurgents, in whatever fashion that may be.

Giving him special attention/treatment is a stupid mistake.

Cheers
-m

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quote:

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Originally posted by skalie
Since when has the US payed attention to the Geneva Convention?

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Registered: Apr 2004
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quote:

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Originally posted by mudded
Giving him special attention/treatment is a stupid mistake.

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Registered: Mar 2004
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Posts: 10490

give it to mob2 so he can dress it like aaliyah and have his way with it.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
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Run it through a woodchipper aimed into a pig pen. Think of it as performance art.

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Registered: Sep 2000
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quote:

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Originally posted by mudded
Bury him like all the other dead insurgents, in whatever fashion that may be.

Giving him special attention/treatment is a stupid mistake.

Cheers
-m

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Registered: Mar 2004
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Right. I'll get the woodchipper fired up.

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quote:

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Originally posted by skinny

Personally i think the Americans should throw him in a hole in the desert. This is all he deserves and, as the article says, a lot of his victims bodies were not found.

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Registered: Mar 2004
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Say...

/me turns off woodchipper.

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nice

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Registered: Jul 2000
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I like that.

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Nute, I could care less what they do with his corpse. really.

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quote:

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Originally posted by ignatz mouse
give it to mob2 so he can dress it like aaliyah and have his way with it.

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Registered: Sep 2000
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I know you don't wonderaz. You probably would prefer they not get their grand martyr's funeral though, I'd guess, as would I.

Does anyone know what is wrong with cremation?

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: zanzibar
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Smithsonian?

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quote:

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Originally posted by Nutrimentia

Does anyone know what is wrong with cremation?

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Attachment: img0014.jpg
This has been downloaded 39 time(s).

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Registered: May 2006
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/me gives me a pat on the back, puffs out my chest.


i've been trying to post an image from day one, thank fuck for that cause i'm fick me.

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