Commitment

An excellent article at by Wretchard and The Belmont Club regarding legend and commitment.

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Wretchard:
Hassan Nasrallah is that they probably agree with Keyser Soze

From The Usual Suspects:
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
(Soze shoots two Hungarians, then shoots his children and his wife as the last Hungarian watches in surprised horror) He tells him he would rather see his family dead than live another day after this.

About Schelling:
...the basic notion of commitment, which communicates to the enemy that you will do what you undertake.
"The most difficult part is communicating your intentions to your enemies. They must believe that you are committed to fighting them in order to defend" what you say you will defend for them to take you seriously. As Verbal Kint put it "to be in power, you didn't need guns or money or even numbers. You just needed the will to do what the other guy wouldn't." To accomplish it no matter what.

From Die Welt:
"Hezbollah's barbarism is legendary. Gen. Effe Eytam, an Israeli veteran of that first Lebanon war, tells of how--after Israel had helped bring "Doctors without Borders" into a village in the 1980s to treat children--local villagers lined up 50 kids the next day to show Eytam the price they pay for cooperating with the West. Each of the children had had their pinky finger cut off."

For those who were for the war, but are now against it:
The cost of escaping one commitment "is the discrediting of other commitments that one would still like to be credited".