I'll tell you boys a funny story. I have three books on drone warfare, and one of them is by a drone operator who sits in an air conditioned 40 foot container in Quantico, Virginia zapping bad guys.

He said that the terrorists just can't get a handle on the fact that the drones are watching their every move, 24 hours a day. They jump in and out of moving cars to throw off the drones but it does not work. The drones can follow them to their hideouts every time, and the drones then blow up a stack of them in one go by dropping the building on top of them. But the best time to "terminate terrs with extreme prejudice" is to do it is when the terrs are traveling in a car, because they can get them on isolated stretches of road where there are no innocents around.

With the drones destroying so many hideouts full of terrs, the stupid schmucks thought that it must be the neighbours who were dobbing them in to the yanks. So every time the yanks destroyed a terr building, killing a lot of terrs, the surviving terrs would run around the neighbourhood killing the neighbours. And so many terrs got killed driving in cars that the stupid schmucks thought that the local mechanics who serviced the Taliban and AL Qaida cars must be putting tracking devices on the cars. So the terrs went around to the garages where their cars were being serviced and shot all the mechanics.

Hee hee hee.

No doubt about the most devout Muslim jihadis, they ain't too bright.

I saw the front line boys popping their pills
Sick of the mess they find
On their desert stage
And the bravery of being out of range
Yeah the question is vexed
Old man what the hell you gonna kill next
Old timer who you gonna kill next
Hey bartender over here
Two more shots
And two more beers
Sir turn up the TV sound
The war has started on the ground
Just love those laser guided bombs
They're really great
For righting wrongs
You hit the target
And win the game
From bars 3,000 miles away
3,000 miles away
We play the game
With the bravery of being out of range
We zap and maim
With the bravery of being out of range
We strafe the train
With the bravery of being out of range
We gain terrain
With the bravery of being out of range
With the bravery of being out of range
We play the game
With the bravery of being out of range

Does the recoil remind you
Remind you of sex?

Craig,
Typical, in your mind the possession of superior technology equals cowardice eh? Bearing in mind that even in a ground war against Arabs Europeans have about a 50-1 kill rate in their favour, and that's when they play nice, if the gloves come off this is what an enemy city looks like afterwards:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Hiroshima_aftermath.jpg,
It's in the Jihadi script that most of them are going to die anyway,the last 5,000 will be cornered in Jerusalem and witness the final battle between the Mahdi and the Antichrist. ISIL have made it quite clear that they are unilaterally declaring war on Europeans because it's their destiny to confront the forces of "Rome" in the battle of armageddon at Dabiq in Syria.

Hi Craig,

Burning someone to death in a cage.

Throwing individuals off tall buildings.

Seizing young girls, raping them and selling them into slavery to your mates.

Beheading bound people.

Shooting people in the back of the head.

These are more honourable than blasting some bunch of terrorists from drones ?

Let me press the button, please !

Joe

Lego’s Quotes 1 of 3

Lego, Your quotes (I will take them up one by one) allow a review of the basic facts that I start with extracts (in quotes) from Karen Armstrong’s article entitled “The True, Peaceful Face of Islam” in The Time Magazine (Sept, 2001).

Armstrong (a modern authority on history of religion with a secular perspective) is one of many mainstream western scholars who have demolished the myth of so called violence in Quran/Islam.

FACT 1: “In the Koran, therefore, the only permissible war is one of self-defence” [2:190 - Fight in the way of Allah against THOSE WHO FIGHT AGAINST YOU..]

FACT 2: “Muslims may not begin hostilities (2: 190)”[ 2:190 … BUT BEGIN NOT HOSTILITIES….]

FACT 3: “HOSTILITIES MUST BE BROUGHT TO AN END AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE AND MUST CEASE THE MINUTE THE ENEMY SUES FOR PEACE (2: 192-3)”

A brief overview of Muhammad’s (Saw) achievement on the subject we are discussing, again in Armstrong’s words (in quotes) is:

• “a major part of his (Muhammad’s) mission was devoted precisely to bringing an end to the kind of mass slaughter we witnessed in New York City and Washington. Pre-Islamic Arabia was caught up in a vicious cycle of warfare, in which tribe fought tribe in a pattern of vendetta and counter vendetta……….”

• “The Prophet had to fight a deadly war in order to survive, but as soon as he felt his people were probably safe, he devoted his attention to building up a peaceful coalition of tribes and achieved victory by an ingenious and inspiring campaign of nonviolence. When he died in 632, he had almost single-handedly brought peace to war-torn Arabia……..”

• “Because the Koran was revealed in the context of an all-out war, several passages deal with the conduct of armed struggle.”

Lego’s Quotes 2 of 3

With this brief background, now I address your quotes:

VERSE 9:5 applied to the prevailing state of war. What do you do in that state? Not fight?

Look at the verse that follows:
9:6 And if anyone of the idolaters seeketh thy protection (O Muhammad), then protect him so that he may hear the Word of Allah, and afterward convey him to his place of safety. That is because they are a folk who know not.

You have obviously ignored research from Lesley Hazleton (Agnostic Jew) on this verse of Quran (among other topics) she explained so clearly in the Utube link Hypocrisy forwarded to you on the 26 Feb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y2Or0LlO6g

She is one of many present day scholars who have spent time to see Quran first-hand as opposed to the ‘study’ of hate-sites for picking up and paddling distortions.

VERSE 9:73: O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites! Be harsh with them. Their ultimate abode is hell, a hapless journey's end.

The key word “striving” against is not conversion by force you appear to insinuate.

The striving, if it extends to a fight MUST be within the ABSOLUTE conditions summarised as FACTS 1, 2, and 3 above. You will not find a SINGLE conversion by force in Muhammad’s (Saw) time, from reliable historic resources

The same applies to your next quote (verse 9:123)

VERSE 9:123: O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto Him).

The number of the Surah (9) tells you the environment which is same as for 9:5 and 9:73. “Near to you” points out the prime responsibility of Muslims close to who the disbelievers wage a war.

Nowhere in it, the Quran allows its followers to wage a war against any people just because of their faith or the lack of it. It has to be in self-defence and is hedged by qualifiers.