Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Another Beheaded American
As of noon EST, 21 September 2004, other major blogs don't seem to be covering this yet. On the other hand, there's this:
The Command Post
Reuters
Fox News
Daily Telegraph
The news makes me shudder, as did the previous murders. (Full disclosure: I have not watched the videos in question. I have read accounts, and seen still photos, and this is more than enough for me.)
No doubt some will say that, faced with this sort of barbarity, Americans have no business being in Iraq at all. Others will point to Eugene Armstrong's job as a contractor, as though this somehow demeans him. (Yes, he was in Iraq to make money. We pay policemen and firefighters too. When soldiers get paid their miniscule salaries during wartime, we do not consider them war profiteers; the civilian contractors in Iraq are not war profiteers either.)
As far as I'm concerned, though, the murderers have reminded us who our enemy is, and simultaneously demonstrated why we must show them no mercy. For they certainly don't show us any.
With acts such as this, they have effectively divorced themselves from the human race. I feel no more sympathy towards them than I did towards Uday and Qusay Hussein. Zarqawi and his followers are animals, pure and simple, and have earned the right to be hunted down as we hunt down mad dogs.
If Zarqawi is captured alive, I confess that I can't imagine a punishment that would fit his crimes.
--DiB
|
The Command Post
Reuters
Fox News
Daily Telegraph
The news makes me shudder, as did the previous murders. (Full disclosure: I have not watched the videos in question. I have read accounts, and seen still photos, and this is more than enough for me.)
No doubt some will say that, faced with this sort of barbarity, Americans have no business being in Iraq at all. Others will point to Eugene Armstrong's job as a contractor, as though this somehow demeans him. (Yes, he was in Iraq to make money. We pay policemen and firefighters too. When soldiers get paid their miniscule salaries during wartime, we do not consider them war profiteers; the civilian contractors in Iraq are not war profiteers either.)
As far as I'm concerned, though, the murderers have reminded us who our enemy is, and simultaneously demonstrated why we must show them no mercy. For they certainly don't show us any.
With acts such as this, they have effectively divorced themselves from the human race. I feel no more sympathy towards them than I did towards Uday and Qusay Hussein. Zarqawi and his followers are animals, pure and simple, and have earned the right to be hunted down as we hunt down mad dogs.
If Zarqawi is captured alive, I confess that I can't imagine a punishment that would fit his crimes.
--DiB
