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How Not To Get Shot by a Soldier

The following is intended to serve as a useful guide to various activists, protesters and other completely non-violent folk who happen to be packing knives, guns, rocks and grenades. You will encounter various law enforcement and military personnel-- this is how not to get shot by them.

First of all it's important to remember that if you attack an armed man in a uniform, he will very probably shoot you.

Even given the most restrictive Rules of Engagement in the world which forbid him from opening fire unless he is outnumbered 600 to 1, and only when he has been given specific authorization by the UN to use deadly force-- there will still come a time when he will open fire on you. This will occur when he feels that he or his comrades are in danger. At this point there will be bullets headed your way, and no matter what you learned at your Madrassa or in Protest Studies at Evergreen State High University, you are not bulletproof. Really, you're not.

The good news is that there is a very easy way not to get shot.

Step 1. Don't attack soldiers.

Step 2. When in doubt, see Step 1.

That means not trying to disembowel them with your peaceful knife and not throwing rocks at their head. Because while you might think that legal activism includes attempted murder, the men in uniform think that attempted murder should result in sudden death. And when that happens you will realize that fanatical passion for your poorly thought out cause and a medieval weapon are no match for trained soldiers who have guns and know how to use them.

The thing to remember is that while just about every revolution you read about does involve a crowd of people rushing at armed men, those people usually end up dead or in a lot of pain. You should expect to have the same thing happen to you. Putting on a Kefiyah or a pair of Birkenstocks does not exempt you from the laws of physics, or the code of common sense. Putting your wacky beliefs about a pedophile who rode a flying horse in a dream aside, if you attack someone, you should expect them to respond. And if they have a gun, they will respond with bullets.

At that point you will either become a martyr or the world's ugliest man.

Since the dawn of time, men have guarded the borders of their nations. The border indicates that the lands within are the possession of their tribe and their chieftain. That border may only be crossed with the permission of the laws of the people who rule over it. To cross that border without their permission is to invite war, or at least a shower of arrows, spears or more lately, bullets. To cross that border for hostile purposes is to take your life in your hands. And unless you have an army with you, those hands are slick, greasy and operated by a mind completely devoid of common sense.

Similarly since the dawn of time men have responded blow for blow, rock for rock and fist for fist. If you claim to be non-violent, that may remove from you the risk of suffering preemptive violence, but it does not give you license to engage in violence yourself under the dubious shield of words. Because words are only good for fighting other words. Once you have a weapon out, then you have put words such as "non-violence" or "pacifist" or "youth" aside. You have given up the moral protection of presumed innocence, for a life and death struggle. And if you do not have the stomach for the consequences of that struggle, then you should not raise that knife or that stone. Because there will be no use complaining afterward about disproportionate violence.

It is also written in the codes of common sense, that only the attacker can be guilty of disproportionate violence, not the defender.

It is the business of the defender only to repel you with as little damage to himself as possible. If you have a rock, you should not expect him to put down his gun, and throw rocks at you. And if you have a knife, you should not expect him to set aside his gun for a sharp blade. This is not a duel of honor, but an exchange of force intended to result in injury or death. His business is not to mete out an equivalent level and method of force to yours, but to dispatch you as quickly as possible. Prior to your attack on him, his concern was for your safety. After your attack on him, his concern is only for his own.

What you need to understand is that for you violence is political. To soldiers and law enforcement officers, violence is only a tool. In your mind, your attempt to kill is noble, while his attempt to kill you is vile and cruel. In his mind however there is an equation, violence set against violence.

He does not particularly care what you believe, just that you not attack him while you are believing it. To you he is only a rage puppet in a political or religious narrative. To him, once you attack you are nothing more than a moving target. Understanding this will help you to not get shot. Failing to understand this is how martyrs are made. But the thing about martyrdom is that the health plan is terrible and there's no long term prospects to it at all.

The difference between terrorists and and soldiers, is that terrorists want to kill people, but lack the necessary skills to do it well. While soldiers have the skills to kill people, but would rather not do it. When angry people with rocks, knives, crowbars and a few guns attack trained personnel with guns, the victory goes to the people who are trained to kill, not to those who want to kill. And when the blooded radicals complain about disproportionate force, what they're really doing is whining about how surprisingly hard it is to kill people.

The average radical, lefty or Islamic, is as stupid as he is vicious. His cleverness exhausts itself in invective and rhetoric, which he discovers has surprisingly little application in a firefight. What is left is a would be murderer who rather late in the game discovers that he is trying to kill people, who are better at killing than he is. And that he came woefully unprepared for the encounter. Part of his misguided thinking is the belief that a knife or a rock are more moral weapons than a gun. They are not. A gun is the most moral weapon invented because it is efficient, quick and deadly. Killing a man with a knife is positively horrifying compared to shooting him in the head. Soldiers and law enforcement officers understand this. Subconsciously so do radicals, which is why they long for the knife, the rock and the nail studded bombs. If they kill, they prefer to be brutal and cruel about it.

The terrorist is utterly terrible at the art of war, but excels at the art of making his innocent victims suffer. The soldier dispatches his targets quickly and cleanly. For the terrorist however, inflicting agony is the sadistic purpose of the entire exercise. The suicide bomber gives himself a quick death, while mutilating those in his vicinity. He spreads horror and shock. And of course terror.

But the media finds something awful about the soldier who executes his target with one round to the head, and something faintly heroic about the suicide bomber "making a statement" by taking away the arms of a 13 year old girl. Because the media radicals admire murderous passion, but find something horrible about the detachment of the soldier just doing his job. To kill horribly because of passion is somehow better in their eyes, than to kill cleanly and dispassionately to keep the people around you safe.

But terrorists only exist when they are tolerated. And they are tolerated by people who do not think like soldiers, but think like the media. Who want to find ways of making terrorists less angry, rather than finding ways to make more terrorists dead. Such people write narrowly restrictive rules of engagement, prosecute soldiers for defending themselves, and are outraged when a bullet prevents a massacre, rather than being outraged by the planned massacre instead.

But let us be clear about it. When you pick up a knife or a rock or a gun, you are not facing the politicians or the generals who answer to them. You are facing men who bear you no particular ill will, but do want to get home to their families that night or that month or that week. And if you do anything that risks interfering with that, they will shoot you.

They are just guarding the front lines. They are not politicians. They just have guns and know how to use them. And if you attack them, you will die. And in that moment you will realize that neither your moving poems or your Koran, will do you the least bit of good. Because while you have the passion, they have the training. And the best to not be shot by men trained in the art of violence, is to put down the knife, the rock or the gun and walk the other way.


(A Spanish translation of this article kindly undertaken by Rafael can be found at his blog here)

Comments

  1. Anonymous15/5/18

    Great article!

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  2. Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:

    “Palestinians have learned the political value of invoking human rights rhetoric. Indeed, Former U.S. State Department official Alan Keyes has argued that by changing the terms of the Mideast debate from a political issue between Israel and the Arab states into a human rights complaint by occupied Palestinians, the PLO has won an undeserved political and diplomatic advantage. Palestinian political organizations now present themselves as human rights organizations, and the media fall for it.”

    SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz (chapter 7, page 230) published in year 1991 by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374

    =====================================
    Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:

    “Too few of Israel’s critics seem to understand the Jewish determination to avoid another Holocaust, this one in Israel. Too few understand why Israel cannot and should not trust its survival to nations that stood idly by while millions of innocent Jews were destroyed.

    Too many nations seem willing to have Israel take risks for an uncertain regional peace that they themselves are unwilling to take for a more important world peace.”

    SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz (chapter 7, page 248) published in year 1991 by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374

    =====================================
    Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:

    “…if Israel’s military power were ever to be diminished to the point that the combined armies of the Arab world could defeat it, I believe there would be another Holocaust.
    No Arab dictator who could defeat Israel and forebore from doing so would survive the continuing frenzy for jihad [Islamic holy war against non-Muslims].

    And an Arab military victory over Israel – unlike the Israeli victories over the Arabs – would not result in a mere occupation or even detention of Israeli Jews.

    It would result in a mass slaughter, designed to rid Arab holy land of Jewish intruders. Most Jews know this, though they rarely speak of it openly.

    But then again, most Jews did not speak openly about the Holocaust before it happened, while it was happening, or for several years after it was over.”

    SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz (chapter epilogue, page 352) published in year 1991 by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374

    =====================================

    Why do many nations attempt to take the Land of Israel,
    especially Jerusalem, away from the Jews?

    =====================================
    The answers are found in the Jewish Bible,
    known as the Tanach in Hebrew and
    the “O.T.” (Only Testament) in English:

    =====================================
    [1] In the Biblical Book of Joshua
    (chapter 23, verses 12 to 13), G*D Himself
    warns that intermarriage with non-Jews will
    cause the Jews to fail in their attempt
    to conquer the Land of Israel.

    Even worse, G_d also warns that intermarriage
    with non-Jews will cause the Jews to be
    pushed-out-of the Land of Israel.

    =====================================
    [2] In the Biblical Book of Jeremiah
    (end of chapter 17), the prophet warns that
    Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem depends
    on Jews observing Shabbat, the Jewish
    Sabbath. If the Jews honor Shabbat,
    then Jerusalem will be ruled by the Jews forever.

    If the Jews DO NOT honor Shabbat,
    then the opposite happens [may G*D have mercy].

    =====================================
    [3] The Biblical Book of Tehillim
    [called “Psalms” in English] (chapter 105,
    last 2 verses of that chapter) teaches that G*D gave
    the Land of Israel to Jews because He wants
    Jews to carefully obey His commandments [chukav].

    Given what this verse teaches, what will
    happen to Jewish control of the Land of Israel,
    if Jews fail to obey His commandments?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice essay. Could do with leaflet drop over Gaza.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous16/5/18

      Leaflets were dropped by the IDF. However, I find it hard to believe that even without leaflets being dropped these terrorists don't know that getting close to the border fence puts them in grave danger. Apparently it's a risk that they accept. That being the case they should stop complaining when they get shot.

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    2. ...somehow that reality has alluded those in the "mass media" who revel in blaming the aggressor for being the victim...after all it's much easier to write an easy article about how many poor "innocents" were killed, shot and injured than to really take the time to understand the situation. Those who abide by this convoluted perspective are nothing but useful idiots and supporters of terror and death.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous16/5/18

    No more than common sense which has been totally lost by the left who think that the universe is a safe, comfortable place that will remain so without any effort, disregarding 99% of history which proves otherwise that in a predatory universe, nothing lasts unless protected and nothing exists unless it has been fought for.

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  5. Anonymous16/5/18

    Brilliant analysis, one which should be compulsory reading across the ME.

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  6. Excellent piece. Pity it does not reach the people it is addressing.

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  7. I say, Shoot the "peaceful rioter" in the butt as he runs away, and give him no medical attention, as he'd just as soon kill the paramedics.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous16/5/18

    You just keep getting better and better.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love this article. Shared.

    ReplyDelete
  10. leaflet over Gaza is a good idea. Good article

    ReplyDelete
  11. Brian Richard Allen16/5/18

    +michael worst said: .... Nice essay. Could do with leaflet drop over Gaza ....

    If only anyone there could read.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Infidel16/5/18

    Excellent article, similar to a train of thought that has been running through my mind for a long time. Could be expanded and formalized into a course for high school (and college) students, to teach them how to deal with police and other authorities. Would be more useful than most of the stuff they teach in schools these days.

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  13. In a rational world, suicidal media propagandists would not be able to portray genocidal, medieval believers in a barbarous theocratic/political tyranny who perpetually have maintained an existential threat for over a millennia and a half to an historically besieged democratic peaceful people (and hundreds of millions of others) and portray the barbarians as Mahatma Gandhi.

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  14. Wait - what's this now?? The holy warriors of the fascist socialist left can't attack soldiers and police officers with impunity?? RACISM!!! It's all Trump's fault!!

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  15. This is an astonishingly good article.
    It makes the most profound point, and yet only you saw it-certainly I didn`t.
    Simplicity is genius. And this is so simple and wise-yet fundamentally vital to grasp. It accounts for so much left. liberal "thinking"-and why it`s driving us to catastrophe if we don`t get your points and make them known. Quite brilliant, thank you sir as ever.

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  16. Sultan,
    you have a way with words.
    I can't believe your analysis/opinions don't appear in syndication!
    Keep up the great writing!!!!

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  17. Awwww! C'mon Sultan. My ammo is growing older by the day and I need the target practice, as well! Gonna love it when the order comes down "Shoot only those whose faces are covered!" Those supercilious little pricks think their masks will save them. Heh.

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  18. I don't think If I've ever read a piece that so thoroughly debunks this whole "innocent victim" narrative by the media and their leftist allies.

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  19. Yes, rational common sense, but the mullahs and commissars understand and exploit the vulnerabilites of the cannon fodder, having bred and nurtured them. Moreover their tactics are winning in the current jihad v infidels eruptions. Just read and listen to the West's MSM.

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  20. Bravo, sir! Well written.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous17/5/18

    Fantastic article. Simple and to the point, however, I have never seen it expressed anywhere else. When I was young, I exchanged four years of my life in the army for a college education. I was not that enthusiastic about the deal I had made when I went in, but I look back now and am glad I had the experience and learned the lessons I did. At 23 or 24 years of age, I had learned how to maneuver tanks in battle, call in artillery or fast movers, essentially to vanquish the enemies of the nation. Most of all I learned discipline. I was surrounded by and learned from quiet professionals who were disciplined and ready to lay their lives down for our country if it came to that. It was a great experience for me and taught me lessons that have served me well in life. I am also proud that our armed forces are apolitical, they stay on their bases and train, but never interfere in the politics or running of the nation. I look at the younger generation of soldiers on tv and see the pride and commitment in their faces that I once felt. I contrast that with the shots of screaming crazy people (antifa) with rage in their voices and hatred written on their faces and I am thankful we still have young men and women that will stand between the everyday people of the country and the undisciplined hordes, if necessary. Again, great article.

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  22. Michael Perloff17/5/18

    The security barrier is on Israel's side of the border. That means that anyone near it with declared hostile intentions has already invaded Israel after illegally crossing its international border. Compounding that breach of international law is their continuing attempts to kill Israeli border guards, soldiers, and police who are protecting their side of the border in a foreign country. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either an innocent victim of the propaganda and misinformation of Israel's declared genocidal adversaries or a willfully ignorant antisemite for whom neither Jews nor the world's sole Jewish state can be perceived in a positive manner.

    The sideshow taking place on the border is nothing more and nothing less than part and partial of the Islamic Reclamation Jihad being waged against Israel. And that is just a manifestation of the ongoing imperialistic Global Jihad of the civilization-destroying ideology of Submission (Islam in Arabic). Israeli policy should be kill or be killed.

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  23. Well and passionately written. One your best. Pleased to share this.

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  24. It is good that the soldiers are well trained. I myself would shoot indiscriminately and to kill as many as possible, but alas I will probably never be given the chance. Good article, great blog site. I am amazed that you do not have 100's more followers.

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  25. Anonymous28/5/18

    Paraphrased quote from Mal on the show Firefly:

    "If someone tries to kill you, you try and kill them right back"

    ReplyDelete

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