Filthy animals.
And you know what the sick part is – you weren’t even sure if the link above was going to take you Palestinians “putting on a show” with mutilated body parts or to Iraqis “putting on a show” with mutilated body parts.
For the past couple of weeks, the thought of people committing physical and psychological abuse in our names so shocked America that legitimate political voices were calling for the impeachment of high officials during a time of war. Meanwhile, thousands of our enemies – and (although I know it’s not fashionable to say these days) the enemies of civilization – dance in celebration at the most gruesome, inhumane, barbarous acts imaginable. Acts right out of pre-civilization. Public massacres and mutilations done in front of thronging and adoring crowds. This isn’t 10th century stuff any more – we’re talking a thousand years BC, where entire towns were razed in the onslaught of senseless armies killing for no discernable purpose except that’s what their gods told them to do. No pretense of holiness. No pretexts of reclaiming land or power. Death for death’s sake.
You can’t reason a man – or a culture – out of what he hasn’t been reasoned into. What we’re witnessing in the streets of Gaza and Iraq goes far beyond the horizon of anything that can be deliberated and discussed. There is no good faith, there is no common ground – hell, there are no shared values. None. Our fundamental, paramount value – the value of life – is inverted in a culture that values death more than life. There is nothing left to talk about.
I’ve gotta believe that there are good and decent people among the filth parading human body parts down streets and in front of cameras. Humanity – like life – perseveres in even the most inhospitable climates. But to base policy on the assumption that those people are in control – or that we can somehow count on those people to temper the vulgarity of their fellows – is insane.
UPDATE: Incidentally, we’re asked to believe that these people’s sensibilities were upset by Abu Ghraib? Seriously?
