A Role Model for the War on Terror: Jarema Wisniowiecki
A Role Model for the War on Terror: Jarema Wisniowiecki
"Kill them so that they know they are dying." This line in the motion picture version of Henryk Sienkiewicz's With Fire and Sword was spoken not by a villain but by one of the heroes, Jarema Wisniowiecki (pronounced "Yarema Vishnyovyetski"). A subsequent scene shows the leader of the Cossack envoys who brought a peace proposal from Bogdan Chmielnicki ("Khmyelnitski") dying by impalement on a bloody wooden stake. Although modern society would regard this as cruel and unusual punishment— it was no worse than the brutal forms of justice that other countries practiced in the seventeenth century— Wisniowiecki is an admirable role model for the modern war on terror. He teaches four specific lessons that civilized Humanity must learn if it is to avoid destruction:
(1) Do not negotiate with entities that offer phony and temporary peaces. Kill them, to the last man if necessary, until they are no longer capable of offering violence.
(2) Do not acknowledge terrorists and dictators as heads of state who have the right to negotiate with civilized countries.
(3) Terrorism can never be forgiven or excused, and its perpetrators must be fought to the death.
(4) Do not recognize the legitimacy of the terrorists' claims. (King Henry VI as a negative role model)
(1) Do not negotiate with entities that offer phony and temporary peaces
The person of an envoy, ambassador, or messenger was then, as it is now, almost sacred. There was no greater disgrace than killing an envoy during a truce so what possible justification did Wisniowiecki have for executing the Cossack ambassadors? Close inspection of With Fire and Sword (Binion translation, pp. 286-289, believed to be in the public domain due to age) shows that the Cossack messengers had not brought a genuine peace proposal. They were instead conveying what modern Arabs call a hudna, a temporary and phony peace whose sole purpose is to gain a respite from hostilities during unfavorable circumstances. The side that offers it intends not to resolve the disagreement and make a permanent peace but rather to resume hostilities as soon as the situation becomes more favorable.
It was clear to them [the Cossack messengers] that Khmyelnitski did not wish to risk a battle at present with such a celebrated leader [Wisniowiecki] and that instead of marching against him with his whole strength, he was trying to create delay, and pretending humility, evidently in the expectation that the forces of the prince [Wisniowiecki] would be worn out by long marches and by battles and encounters with various Cossack detachments; in a word he was evidently very much afraid of the prince.
...[Wisniowiecki concluded] "The cunning of this enemy is great! He either thinks that he will lull me to sleep with this letter in order to attack a sleeping man, or he is trying to entice me into the heart of the Commonwealth, finish up the business there, and receive pardon from the King and from the Diet [Sejm]..."
...[After consulting his officers, Wisniowiecki] ...then turned to the Colonel of the Tartar bodyguard. "Colonel Vyershul, order your Tartars to behead these Cossacks; but to cut a stake for their leader and impale him at once."
..."This must be done in return for the cruelty which they practiced on the other side of the Dnieper; and to maintain our dignity and for the welfare of the whole Commonwealth. It must be shown by such an example that there is someone who is not afraid of this bandit leader [Khmyelnitski], and who will treat him as a highwayman..."
In other words, contemporary standards of honor not only allowed a phony peace offer or hudna to be rejected out of hand— the movie shows Wisniowiecki tearing the Cossacks' document in half without even reading it— but its bearers to be put to death for treachery. In contrast, modern Israel continues to negotiate with equally treacherous Palestinians despite an ongoing litany of broken truces. Israel knew that Yasser Arafat was turning the violence on and off as necessary to suit his own needs but never carried out its duty to protect its citizens by putting a bullet through Arafat's head or a rocket through his office window. Jarema Wisniowiecki would have done whichever was more convenient with no hesitation whatsoever.
The "cruelty which they practiced on the other side of the Dnieper" included massacres of entire villages, with Jews and Polish gentry being put to the sword or worse, women raped and then drowned (presumably because rape made them "spoiled goods" that could no longer be sold to the Tartars' harems), convents and monasteries put to the torch and their occupants slain, and similar behavior. Today, Palestinian and other Arab terrorists perpetrate similar atrocities (Seders and buses blown up, a senior citizen murdered and thrown off a ship, airplanes hijacked and crashed into office buildings) but there is no Jarema Wisniowiecki in the United States or Israel who will condemn the perpetrators to the gallows, firing squad, or lethal injection chamber as they deserve.
(Read the rest of the article at Omdurman.org)
Posted by Bill Levinson at November 4, 2005 07:14 PM
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1.
rocky
said:
You have to deal with the ideology. Not just with the foot soldiers.
You have to kill Islam, like Nazism was killed.
Islam is the inspiration for Hamas.
It is also the inspiration for Islamic imperialism which seeks to take over the world.
Killing Germans in WW2 would have been an absurd goal without dealing with nazism.
This is not about killing people, if you do so, you are merely mirroring their methods and become a butcher like them.
Kill Islam period.
Posted by: rocky on November 5, 2005 06:53 AM
2.
George
said:
are you guys completelty nuts or are you just making some sort of right wing joke?
Posted by: George on November 5, 2005 07:53 AM
3.
georg von mecklenburg
said:
The Nazis and Nazism is not dead. In fact, the entire movement today is very much alive. Different faces, and different people, but the same operations. Substitute Arafat or Abbas for Hitler and we have the same individuals with the same agenda... that is to kill and isolate the Jews. Ironically, the Jews of today are still employing the appeasement factors that their parents and grandparents employed 60-70 years ago.
Posted by: georg von mecklenburg on November 5, 2005 08:08 AM
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A Role Model for the War on Terror: Jarema Wisniowiecki
"Kill them so that they know they are dying." This line in the motion picture version of Henryk Sienkiewicz's With Fire and Sword was spoken not by a villain but by one of the heroes, Jarema Wisniowiecki (pronounced "Yarema Vishnyovyetski"). A subsequent scene shows the leader of the Cossack envoys who brought a peace proposal from Bogdan Chmielnicki ("Khmyelnitski") dying by impalement on a bloody wooden stake. Although modern society would regard this as cruel and unusual punishment— it was no worse than the brutal forms of justice that other countries practiced in the seventeenth century— Wisniowiecki is an admirable role model for the modern war on terror. He teaches four specific lessons that civilized Humanity must learn if it is to avoid destruction:
(1) Do not negotiate with entities that offer phony and temporary peaces. Kill them, to the last man if necessary, until they are no longer capable of offering violence.
(2) Do not acknowledge terrorists and dictators as heads of state who have the right to negotiate with civilized countries.
(3) Terrorism can never be forgiven or excused, and its perpetrators must be fought to the death.
(4) Do not recognize the legitimacy of the terrorists' claims. (King Henry VI as a negative role model)
(1) Do not negotiate with entities that offer phony and temporary peaces
The person of an envoy, ambassador, or messenger was then, as it is now, almost sacred. There was no greater disgrace than killing an envoy during a truce so what possible justification did Wisniowiecki have for executing the Cossack ambassadors? Close inspection of With Fire and Sword (Binion translation, pp. 286-289, believed to be in the public domain due to age) shows that the Cossack messengers had not brought a genuine peace proposal. They were instead conveying what modern Arabs call a hudna, a temporary and phony peace whose sole purpose is to gain a respite from hostilities during unfavorable circumstances. The side that offers it intends not to resolve the disagreement and make a permanent peace but rather to resume hostilities as soon as the situation becomes more favorable.
In other words, contemporary standards of honor not only allowed a phony peace offer or hudna to be rejected out of hand— the movie shows Wisniowiecki tearing the Cossacks' document in half without even reading it— but its bearers to be put to death for treachery. In contrast, modern Israel continues to negotiate with equally treacherous Palestinians despite an ongoing litany of broken truces. Israel knew that Yasser Arafat was turning the violence on and off as necessary to suit his own needs but never carried out its duty to protect its citizens by putting a bullet through Arafat's head or a rocket through his office window. Jarema Wisniowiecki would have done whichever was more convenient with no hesitation whatsoever.
The "cruelty which they practiced on the other side of the Dnieper" included massacres of entire villages, with Jews and Polish gentry being put to the sword or worse, women raped and then drowned (presumably because rape made them "spoiled goods" that could no longer be sold to the Tartars' harems), convents and monasteries put to the torch and their occupants slain, and similar behavior. Today, Palestinian and other Arab terrorists perpetrate similar atrocities (Seders and buses blown up, a senior citizen murdered and thrown off a ship, airplanes hijacked and crashed into office buildings) but there is no Jarema Wisniowiecki in the United States or Israel who will condemn the perpetrators to the gallows, firing squad, or lethal injection chamber as they deserve.
(Read the rest of the article at Omdurman.org)
Posted by Bill Levinson at November 4, 2005 07:14 PM