20160328 (martyrdom)

X-Ray of one injured in the Brussels bombing 03/22/16 showing the explosives were wrapped with bolts, nails, as iron shrapnel to kill or injure those not killed or injured directly by the explosive force of the bomb.

We’ll likely never know how

Often tormented souls agree

To be among the terror bombed,

The heroic first to die gloriously

For the cause, supposedly so

Quickly as not to feel pain, but

Turn from task, walk away at

The last moment realizing

They could not throw the switch,

Press the button. Do they return

To their leaders and beg to be

Forgiven, request to be relieved

Of the weaponry jacket, say,

“Perhaps another day,” or

“Allah be praised, I couldn’t

Do it. Find another.” What

Becomes of them? Do the

Recruiters decide they’ll

Tighten their criteria for such

Attackers, go for someone

More desperate, administer

Psychological tests to those

In training? Or are they cursed,

Killed lest they talk, reveal

Their mentors in the dance of

Death? Or do they, like Jesus

With the young man who wished

To serve but could not forsake

His possessions, feel sorrow

And let them go? What a waste

Of materiel, planning, opportunity

To commit turncoat killers whose

Wills crumple under stress, not

To say endangering the cell.

How many failures of recruitment

Would they countenance before

Sending someone back to become

Fodder for cannons in Syria

Or Iraq? How accountable are

They? A severed head maybe?

Or a cushy lifetime in penitence?

Hardly. Maybe he’d get to be an

Advance soldier to find the mines

On a road before a squad risks

Six fighters going onward.

Oh!—to die and receive no 

Virgins. What failure. Or

Do they adjust their technique?

Equip the suicidals with 

Both a voluntary button to

Secure their fame with choice

And a remote detonator in

The event they decide it is

Not their day to die? That

Would require an observer/

Actuator to know conditions

Are right but doubles the

Chance of detection. Would

The backup have to be close

Enough also to die? Or far

Enough away to survive and

Escape? Terror may be the 

Weapon of the weak, available

To those with small budgets, but 

It’s no picnic for the strategists

Either.

c. J.S.Manista, 2016