June 20, 2004
Here we go again
Via Dean Esmay I learn that Al Qaeda is threatening to send South Korea the head of a Korean man they have kidnapped.
The thing about this kind of brutality is that we, of course, can't do the same back. Right? But what if it's the only thing that works? Israel knocks down the houses of the families of suicide bombers. The bombers know, going in, that their family will lose their home. According to captured terrorists, it's working, and the drastic reductions in suicide bombings in Israel prove it. So, what if we start sending heads to the moms of the kidnappers? What if we kill them live on the internet? Or, hell, why don't we NOT freak out when they have underwear on their heads or are stacked in naked pyramids because there is no comparison between our 'abuse' and theirs.
It's hard to be America. Held to a ridiculous standard and despised when we can't live up to it, we open ourselves to being the victim because we refuse to be the aggressor. We're in Iraq to protect ourselves by stabilizing a region of the world that has known only insanity and despotism. And yet, we won't use the appropriate force to make it so. All options should be on the table now, forget the Abu Ghraib photos, our military should make them look like child's play. Which, ultimately, they were.
It's getting harder to care all the time. I was disgusted by the Abu Ghraib photos and now I just don't give a damn. They're nothing. Paul Johnson's head on his back is something. The look on the South Korean man's face is something. Naked photos with fake wires? Nothing. There might be more to Abu Ghraib (Vodkapundit writes that he thinks there is and uses a now unfortunate turn of phrase to describe what he thinks should happen) and I might feel differently if that is so but as it stands now, it doesn't matter to me.
Posted by Karol at June 20, 2004 08:18 PM | TrackBackTechnorati Tags:
Was just having this conversation the other day. We are unable to fight them on their level - - we simply can't. It's our morality and our civility that makes us different from them. And we are different from them - - no matter what Ted Kennedy says. If we sink to their level - we're no better than the enemy we're fighting against.
Small conslation, I know. The comment I made during that conversation was, "Then how do we win? They can take up the stakes to the level of horrendous, murderous brutality - - while our own nation's media condems us for panty raids in Iraqi prisons??"
Dont' get me wrong - I was outraged as the next guy about the prison abuse at the hands of our own soliders. It's embarassing. But it's nowhere near what our troops - and coalition troops are being dealt at the hands of these terrorists.
What IS the answer?
Posted by: Lisa at June 21, 2004 02:33 AMPart of the answer might have been to have some sort of plan once the war had been won. With no strategy in place, Iraq has turned into a right mess. It isn't helped by the fact that American forces rely on technology to solve the situation rather than the actual troops on the ground.
Posted by: supersexy29 at June 21, 2004 11:31 AM"...held to a ridiculous standard."
What standard would that be? The one that says that we are to abide by the rule of law that governs all supposedly civilized nations? The one that says we do not torture people, despite what the idiotic Justice Department under Herr Ashcroft says?
There are just so many ridiculous standards out there.
Posted by: Michael at June 21, 2004 02:55 PMThere is one glaringly gigantic problem with what you have said. Who is "THEM?"
Think about that for a second. Sure, the terrorists who caught off Berg and the latest American's head. Fuck 'em, flay them alive for all I care (the Saudis did apparently get some of the latest bunch). But that's easy to say, but they are hard to get, because they are underground and diabolical and all that.
So what are you suggesting? Should we just start grabbing Iraqi's and killing them in protest? Obviously not, but that is what we did in Abu Gharib on a lessor scale (i.e., mostly torture, only a few murders). Many of the prisoners there were not soldiers fighting America, they were not terrorists, they were people in the wrong place at the wrong time and, in case you don't want to believe me, remember that we are releasing them -- if I have faith in Rummy and Co. at all, I trust them not to release anyone they think is a threat.
That is what makes Abu Ghraib so abhorrent. This wasn't the targeted torture of a few individuals who we knew, or strongly suspected were terrorists, this was torture of thousands because we thought a few terrorists might be in there (or we just have a few dick head soldiers who thought it would be fun, I'll wait to see what the ultimate answer is).
Think about this before you so cavalierly suggest that we should not be concerned about our military arbitrary torturing people.
Posted by: Signor_Ferrari at June 21, 2004 03:04 PM
