Fallujah must die.

4 From U.S. Killed in Ambush in Iraq; Mob Drags Bodies

A part of me can't believe I'm writing this. After all, I do recognize that there are people in Fallujah who were horrified at the attack on four American civilian contractors. According to reports, many residents of Fallujah hid in their homes while the merry-makers desecrated the bodies of four people whose job it was to plan & provide security for army convoys bringing food to this former-Baathist stronghold. That only tells me so much, and it's not enough to exonerate them.

Many of you reading this may be aghast at that last sentence. Surely their fearfulness kept them inside, and represents an implicit disapproval and horror at the barbarism of their fellow townspeople, most of whom were young men, teenagers and boys. This assertion, while true, only serves to further cement my judgment. Fallujah must die.

The Islamic world is one of cowardice, hiding behind the guise of machismo and wounded pride. To hide in one's home, to let the horror continue unabated while one is safely tucked away, signifies the moral bankruptcy not only of the citizenry, but also of Islam and it's adherents'. Let it all happen, it will all blow over.

Don't tell them of your horror.

Don't tell them that there is no place for barbarians in the modern world.

Don't tell them that their maniacal behavior will bring violence upon their home and family.

Don't tell them they are fighting a losing cause, and are choosing nihilism over survival.

Don't tell them, when their children join in the barbarism, that they (the children) are wrong and that they will pay a moral price for their behaviour.

After all, does not the Koran say that the horrors of yesterday are glorious in the eyes of Allah? And we wonder why people like Saddam thrive within the social construct that is Islam, and the Middle East in particular?

If these are the choices they make, and the language they speak, then we must reply to them in the manner they are best-suited to understand. Get the Americans and other aid workers out of danger. Warn the residents of Fallujah that they have a few hours to leave: enough time to evacuate themselves but not enough to pack all of their things (whether weapons or clothes or what have you) and then drop a MOAB or similar tactical device on Fallujah. The bomb should be enough to render dust all traces of a town having once existed on that site, but will not be so destructive as to irradiate the area. At that time they may return to sort out whatever may be left over from the strike. The sight of the former Baathist town of plenty reduced to sand and ash will communicate our resolve much more effectively than any diplomatic overture.

If they will not wipe the slate clean, then we will.