This is an excerpt of a piece I first read in 1996. It opened my eyes then to a world of posibilities. My wife once asked me what sparked my interest in politics and military science and at the time I didn't know but I think that this piece was the prime mover. Upon giving it solid consideration I realized that what other countries do does in fact matter here at home. That day I ceased to be an isolationist like so many back home in Minnesota who think that we should just ignore everything and it will go away.

     I mention this piece and reprint a smidgen of it here in the hopes that some of you will find the time to read the full article (about 3 pages but stick it out it is worth it). While the timeline has slipped the main thrust of the piece remains the same.

     From the Weekly Standard

POLITICAL DISSENT soon burned at the fabric of American society, and we managed to inflame that controversy even more. We told the press that we would take reprisals against American POWs for the nuclear "attack." As you know, this was the first major war in which America deployed large numbers of female combat soldiers. To carry out our plan, our fighters captured a few dozen.

The Americans believed that their nation could endure the sight of women as POWs. Perhaps they were right. Whatever the case, America was shocked by what we did next: We used our infamous Boys Brigade to rape the women, and then to amputate their limbs and burn their faces. Though we let them suffer terribly, we were careful not to kill them. We told the world that our women suffered much more in the atomic catastrophe.

The events surrounding the 50th anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima taught us that the condemnations would be few. We saw how many people--including plenty of Americans--overlooked Japanese atrocities during World War II to castigate the American use of The Bomb to end the war. We likewise portrayed ourselves as nuclear "victims" and gained a surprising amount of sympathy despite our acts against the prisoners.

We then returned the POWs to the Americans--we said it was a "humanitarian" gesture. We converted the repatriation into what they called a " media circus." In no way did we try to hide what we did; to the contrary, we advertised it--using video clips on the Internet--as a warning of things to come.

However prepared the Americans thought they were to see their daughters come back in body bags, they were not ready to see them returned home strapped to wheelchairs, horribly mutilated, and shrieking in agony.

     This particular bit of the article fills me with a horror that I am unable to fully express. As another web writer once said "My vocabulary is an arsenal yet I am disarmed in this matter."

      Find the full article here.

(Think it is farfetched? Look at how vigorously we squelched the rape of Jessica Lynch. Think taped beheadings are bad? You can bet they are out there dying to capture a woman.)