[BigV]

are you saying it is a military situation because it is in Afghanistan? Cause, what happens in Afghanistan is ... military-y?

If this happened in say, Los Angeles or Atlanta, some people killed the son of a cop, cause the cop wouldn't cooperate with these people, would that be a military situation? I don't think so and I sincerely doubt you'd say so.

I'm not a military expert, but I do know that there's a lot of influence that a name has. What something is called frames the discussion and the response. If you call it a crime, then the response is law enforcement. If you call it a militant action, then the response is a military one.

What do you do if there is no (effective) law enforcement? At the risk of mixing my metaphors here, if the answer you have is a hammer, your problems look like nails. But what is the cause and what is the effect? Does the hanging itself constitute an act of war? Or is it the location, the circumstance, the actors, the responders that make it one?

...

I think the right response here is a military one. Not because kidnapping and murder are acts of war, but because the military is the only hammer there to crush worthless fuckers like this.