Why Terrorists Decapitate
 

http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp...4&nav=EyAzRGgU

For centuries, it has been one of humanity's most graphic, gruesome ways to end a life: sever the head, home to thoughts, dreams and that most personal of features -- the face. Decapitation by hand, with sword or knife, smacks of ugly yesterdays -- things the West prefers to think it has left behind.

Now, as insurgents in Iraq commandeer a modern medium by bringing decapitation videos to the Internet, an ancient punishment has become a 24-hour news cycle's shocking message of defiance -- one that effectively both sows terror and shows off to the young Islamic men the militants are trying to recruit.

"What they do is behead Americans so they can get on the TV screens," President Bush said Thursday. "And they're trying to shake our will and they're trying to shake the Iraqis' will."

That much is certain. But behind the mix of brutality, adeptly produced video and a free global distribution system, the militants are tapping into a network of fears many centuries old -- and blending the ancient with the modern to create a freshly powerful method of communication.

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