And If They Had Burned Alive The Japanese Journalist Instead?

The King of Jordan, shaky on his throne, is attempting to make sure that the people in his country are whipped up against ISIS, for they could just as easily be whipped up, under other circumstances, against him. The “ferocious” reaction of Jordan is not based on principle, but on the need to keep the street under control, and by having the Kawasbah tribe, the one that is given pride of place since it was one of theirs who was killed, start things going, this may prevent those — and they are many in Jordan — who support ISIS from being too noisy.

There are, after all, plenty of imams and others in Jordan already on record, and videotaped, denouncing the Jordanian participation, however infinitesmal it may have been, in the bombing campaign against ISIS. What will they do right now? Probably stay very quiet. They are patient. They know their day will come. 

And think of this. Had the Jordanian pilot not been killed in the way he was, but instead the Japanese journalist been th eone burned to death, would Jordan be outraged, would angry Jordanians take to the streets? Of course not. They wouldn’t be upset at all. And they’d have been glad, stepping over the ashes of the Japanese journalist, to  trade Al-Rishawi, now due to be executed in a few hours, for the Jordanian pilot.