To Khaled al-Asaad Khaled al-Asaad, aged 81, a renowned Syrian antiquities scholar, was publicly beheaded on August 18, 2015, by the Islamic State in the ancient city of Palmyra, apparently after he refused to reveal where valuable artifacts were hidden which IS intended to destroy. Auden wrote to the effect That all his anti-Nazi poems Had not saved one Jew.   So I feel now the futility Of words against pure evil. Words are not needed.   Needed are large numbers Of well-trained infantry, Artillery, tanks and aircraft.   And yet, if civilization And a martyrdom for civilization Mean anything…