I will get you

Antoine Leiris’ wife was murdered during the terrorist attacks in Paris.  His letter to the terrorists has been shared on Facebook a few thousand times. His message: “I will not give you the gift of hating you“.  My message would be different.

I have been married 23 years. Thankfully, I am able to spend almost every minute of my life with my husband. We’re one. We work together, have fun together, we eat together we do everything together. If he would be killed by a criminal or terrorist (though I consider both to be the same) my life would only go on for one simple reason:  Retribution. I am not talking blind hate – but cool, unwavering, planned and fearless actions against those who have taken my life from me.

Antoine Leiris may be able to forgive, he maybe able to carry on, but I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. Accidents happen. I could live with that. I would be able to accept other reasons for us not to be together any more. But if somebody would just take him, because of rage, fun or other criminal intend, I would use all the means at my disposal to strike back at those who committed the crime, planned it, financed it, supported it or profited from it. In extension – that is also valid in defense of other members of my family, friends or countrymen.

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful world without fear and hate? Unfortunately it can’t work if others won’t let you. You can love as much as you want, but if others want to kill you, the only way to stop them is to make sure the echo is tough, strong and brutal. Submission and love won’t stop anybody from imposing his will upon you, to take you as a slave, to rape or even to kill you.

You have to make “the others” understand, that for  every action, there will be a re-action. This is how the criminal law works. You do something bad – you get punished. If there wouldn’t be a law or no police, our life would be dominated by thugs. The fear of being punished is what makes some folks behave who would otherwise chose a different “lifestyle” . You robbed my store at gun point – but I love you – wouldn’t be the right response. The police and the district attorneys office have the job to find and punish domestic offenders. If the criminals are abroad or sponsored by foreign governments, its up to the intelligence community, the Army, Air Force, Navy or Marines to get and punish those responsible.

So – if you want the answer to the Paris (or any other terrorist) attack to be: “I wont hate you” – I am ok with it. As long as the messages are delivered by the Air Force, Army, Navy or Marines.