Cannon Fodder Series

Job 27: 1 – 23

Cannon Fodder

1 Moreover Job continued his discourse, and said: 2 “As God lives, who has taken away my justice, and the Almighty, Who has made my soul bitter, 3 As long as my breath is in me, and the breath of God in my nostrils, 4 my lips will not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. 5 Far be it from me that I should say you are right; Till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. 6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live. 7 “May my enemy be like the wicked, and he who rises up against me like the unrighteous. 8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he may gain much, if God takes away his life? 9 Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? 10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call on God? 11 “I will teach you about the hand of God; what is with the Almighty I will not conceal. 12 Surely all of you have seen it; why then do you behave with complete nonsense? 13 “This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, received from the Almighty: 14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. 15 Those who survive him shall be buried in death, and their widows shall not weep, 16 though he heaps up silver like dust, and piles up clothing like clay—17 He may pile it up, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver. 18 He builds his house like a moth, like a booth which a watchman makes. 19 The rich man will lie down, but not be gathered up; he opens his eyes, and he is no more. 20 Terrors overtake him like a flood; A tempest steals him away in the night. 21 The east wind carries him away, and he is gone; It sweeps him out of his place. 22 It hurls against him and does not spare; He flees desperately from its power. 23 Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.

Cannon fodder, means someone who is expendable or in simpler terms, a tool. It is a very flexible term that is used widely in reference to politics and athletics, but most frequently in combat. The term is a military term that dates back to the civil war, troops would be sent out as distraction to the cannons, or simply as "food for the cannons" in other words, fodder means food, thus cannon fodder means cannon food.

Currently we see a similar technique used by the terrorist group ISIS. These fighters have used civilians as human shields, booby-trapped cars and carried out suicide bombings to slow advances by their opponents and avoid coming under attack. Thousands of civilians were held captive by the group in Fallujah, which Iraqi forces recaptured in June after a four-week offensive.

Just recently ISIS fighters seized some 2,000 civilians to use as "human shields" Friday as they fled their stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria, US-backed forces and an outside monitor said.The abductions came as Russian and Syrian jets pounded rebel positions in Aleppo, an AFP correspondent and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

The Arab-Kurdish alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces expelled most of the ISIS fighters from Manbij last week, but dozens continued to put up tough resistance. On Friday, they withdrew from a district in northern Manbij heading for the ISIS-held town of Jarabalus along the border with Turkey, taking the captives with them."While withdrawing from a district of Manbij, Daesh [ISIS] jihadists abducted around 2,000 civilians from Al-Sirb neighbourhood," said Sherfan Darwish, spokesman for the Manbij Military Council, a key component of the SDF.

"They used these civilians as human shields as they withdrew to Jarabulus, thus preventing us from targeting them," he said, adding that women and children were among those taken.The Britain-based human rights group, which relies on information from sources on the ground, also reported that ISIS had abducted around 2,000 civilians as they fled Manbij.It said ISIS confiscated residents' cars, forced civilians into them and then headed for Jarabulus.

The jihadists, who have suffered a string of losses in Syria and Iraq, have often staged mass kidnappings in the two countries when they come under pressure to relinquish territory.In January, ISIS abducted more than 400 civilians, including women and children, as it overran parts of Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria. It later released about 270 of them.