Know your enemy

The pleas from kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll's parents were heartfelt.

But heartfelt pleas can only be felt by those with hearts.

Her militant Islamic captors are guilty of much, but not of having hearts. No amount of reason would sway them. They are always going to do whatever serves their twisted purposes - not what advances social justice or the aims of human compassion.

"They've picked the wrong person," mother Mary Beth Carroll said. When have such savages picked the right people? Were the other kidnapped Westerners who were beheaded somehow more deserving of their fate?

Our hearts go out to the Carroll family. And you can understand their wanting to turn over every stone in an attempt to get their daughter freed. But they are fooling themselves, and giving false hope to others, if they really believe Islamic militants care whether journalist Carroll is fair or cares about Iraq. To them, she is just another infidel who needs to be eliminated.

"If they're looking for somebody who is an enemy of Iraq, Jill is just the opposite," her mother said.

Perhaps. But the mother is navely mistaken if she believes the militants are looking for enemies of Iraq. They see every one of us as enemies. They don't believe we have a right to live.

"Do not sacrifice an innocent soul," said her father, Jim Carroll.

This is our prayer as well, sir. But brutally murdering innocent souls also happens to be these terrorists' stock-in-trade.

Carroll's parents can be forgiven for trying anything to get their daughter back. But the rest of us need to remember the nature of our enemy.