Is this thing still on? *tap, tap, tap* Yep, appears so.
Now, His Majesty hasn’t a lot of love lost between him and the whole “look like a sad, unkempt puppy” Emo phenomenon, but this is CLEARLY going too far (h/t Bill Quick):
At least 90 Iraqi teenagers with “emo” appearances have been stoned to death by religious extremists in Baghdad in the past month after an inflammatory interior ministry statement dubbed it “devil worshiping”, activists said.
Iraq’s Moral Police released a chilling statement on the interior ministry’s website condemning the “emo phenomenon” among Iraqi youth, disturbingly declaring its intent to “eliminate” the trend.
Of course, then there’s Bill’s larger point that maybe that wasn’t exactly what we were told we were sacrificing for in our Grand Nation-Building Experiment of Iraq. Good point, to be sure, but it’s not so much that trying to squash tyranny in other countries is a Bad Thing™, His Majesty never had a problem with doing that (it’s also good for your Immortal Soul™), it’s that the Grand Nation-Building Experiment of Iraq was never about squashing tyranny and making sure it would never again oppress the people of Iraq. It was about maybe, possibly, politely convincing wannabe and future tyrants of Iraq alike that they really, oughtn’t do such a thing and, oh, by the way, “no, we didn’t mean it that way, for goodness’ sake, we were just gently suggesting that it simply isn’t done but, then again, if you think differently then we certainly apologize most profusely for having hurt your tender feelings by insulting your equally valid and quite wonderful cultural mores, blah, blah, blech…”
Nations can be built through force and yes, it most certainly can be a very worthwhile mission with valuable results, just look at Germany and Japan, but it’s an exercise in futility if you ever as much as let your vanquished foe think that maybe they can get away with going back to their old ways.
The process is really very simple:
1) Squash, crush, destroy and trample your enemy with superior and relentless force until HE knows that he’s been beaten and comes crawling for mercy.
2) Tell him how it’s going to be and DON’T offer other “culturally sensitive” options or you WILL make your formerly vanquished foe start wondering if he really lost after all, which will gradually and exponentially erode away at your hard-earned victory.
3) At all points make it clear that what was just done to him can and WILL be done again, only worse this time since your patience account is way overdrawn, if he is in any way non-compliant. At the same time, reward any and all individuals who do comply.
If you’re not willing to do the above, ALL of the above, then don’t bother even trying because it will fail. Just go in, destroy shit until enemy surrenders, then leave.
P.S.: Besides, the barbarian death cultist pisslamists are going about it all wrong. If they want to get rid of the Emos quickly and efficiently without getting the attention of the rest of the world, just hand out free razor blades and over the counter pain medicine. They’ll take care of the rest themselves.
Thatisall.