Feeding The Fishes

There are two kinds of people: family.

That's right, in both cases, we are family.

So, when a member of my family is killed or kidnapped, I've got to look at the other kind of people in my family and ask them why.

Just like the other day when I had a couple of colleagues consult for a few business associates of mine (and please stop calling my associates "Chinese Triad" - we're all members of the same family business, are we not?).  Business is business.  Sometimes, you take care of business and the matter's settled.

So who is calling themselves the Taliban/Taleban/Autobahn this time?

Business is business.  If you want to play the kidnap/murder game, then here are the stakes at issue:

More murder and mayhem.  I hate to use the word blitzkrieg because you may not understand European war tactics but we've got an arsenal of carpet bombs you might understand more clearly.  Yes, they fly magically and appear to wipe out family members who want to toy around with the big boys.

I have many Muslim friends who understand business.  The business of warmaking is not a religious one, in our daily family interactions.

The same here.

I respect my Muslim friends and their family rituals.  They, too, respect their family members, treating women with the respect and honour they deserve as family.

So, my Taliban family members, if you want to give up the one you hold, then we will let you remain family in a peaceful sort of way.

Otherwise, business is business.  One highly-trained member of our naval family is worth what?  A few dozen of yours?

Either you learn to share the bounty of your harvest like a good fee/tax/bribe paying member of the family, or a Cuban prison looks like luxury accommodations in comparison to what our sharp shark-toothed friends have in store.

Remember, very few of us are chronicled in the history books.  The rest are dust.  This little incident will fade and be forgotten.  If you aren't around to bless your family with family of your own because you decided to take a sailor under your wing after killing another one, who's going to remember your selfish, shortsighted actions when you and your family are dead and gone?

I believe in freedom of expression.

You have the ability to correct this error of yours.  Or not.

And if not, I promise there will be no one left in your family to tell your dead-man's tale.

This isn't about religion.  It's simply a matter of a resolving a dispute between family members.

Maybe you already made up your mind.

That's okay.  So have I.