Saturday, May 01, 2004

A Comparison Worth Noting

The president and the American people are angry and ashamed at the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of American soldiers and our anger and shame is justified. I know that I am not alone in the expectation and demand that all of those responsible be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Contrast our national shock and dismay over assaults on the dignity of these prisoners with the wanton murder and gleeful mutilation of 4 civilian contractors in Falluja in March.

On one side you have humiliation of prisoners, met with disgust from the president down to the common citizen. On the other side, you have the murder of civilian contractors and the grisly mutilation of their bodies by a rabid mob. A Muslim cleric was quoted as saying "Islam does not condone the mutilation of the bodies of the dead," but stopped short of condemning the actual killing. Muslim clerics you see, spend much of their time stoking the fires of these murderous mobs.

The contrast could not be starker.

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