We see some condemnation from the Arab world. Hizbollah says that the decapitation was “un-Islamic“:
“Hizbollah condemns this horrible act that has done very great harm to Islam and Muslims by this group that claims affiliation to the religion of mercy, compassion and humane principles,” the Shi’ite Muslim group said in a statement.
Yes, you’re not supposed to cut their heads off. You’re supposed to blow yourself up next to them, propelling rat-poisoned-dunked metal fasteners though them, ensuring that if they live, it will be a lifetime of pain. Now that’s Islam!
Here’s the real reason they’re upset. It’s mostly the timing:
Hizbollah said Berg’s killing had diverted the world’s gaze from an escalating furor over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by occupation soldiers.
“The timing of this act that overshadowed the scandal over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners in occupation forces prisons is suspect timing that aims to serve the American administration and occupation forces in Iraq and present excuses and pretexts for their inhumane practices against Iraqi detainees,” it said.
It’s a lament I’m sure they share with some people here. Couldn’t they have waited until after the election?
Someone at Free Republic thinks that the terrorists edited out about a minute and a half of the butchery. If what he describes is accurate, it sounds credible.
After Chretien, it’s nice to see Canada finally have a PM with a grip on reality.
“I believe that terrorism will be, for our generation, what the Cold War was to generations that preceded us,” he said. “I don’t think we’re out of it yet.”
Martin disagreed with former prime minister Jean Chretien, who publicly blamed poverty for terrorism and the Sept. 11 attacks. “The cause of terrorism is not poverty, it is hatred.”
I know that good news about Iraq doesn’t seem to be very popular right now, particularly in the major media, but Glenn has a couple letters that are encouraging, about Najaf and Al-Sadr, and Fallujah.
On the other hand, what do they know?
They’re only the people who are actually there on the ground, interacting with the Iraqis in ways both violent and kind, as appropriate, every day. They don’t have the benefit of journalism degrees and elite cocktail parties from which to get their news and reinforce their anti-Bush opinions.
James Lileks says what I meant to say here, but more at length and, as always, more eloquently.
…half the battle will occur in places we cannot reach or observe. A minimal-casualty defeat of the Islamists will require the help of Islam. I’d like to think that will happen on its own, without some exterior catastrophe to force the issue. For that matter I’d like to think I’ll win the Powerball. Every time the jackpot goes over 200 million, I buy a ticket. Every time I lose. I’m always disappointed, of course. But never surprised.
I’m not always a fan of Bill Safire’s, but I find little in this column with which to disagree.
But won’t the Iraqi people be driven crazy by pictures from Abu Ghraib prison and embrace the pro-Saddam terrorists? My Kurdish friends say that’s nonsense. They remember the 5,000 innocents Saddam gassed to death in Halabja
“It’s a pretty clear call for us,” said Jon Banner, executive producer of ABC’s “World News Tonight.” “I think the viewer will understand what happened to Mr. Berg. They won’t have to sit through the graphic images.”
Yup, just as they don’t have to sit through the graphic images of people plunging from the towers. Apparently they only show (and reshow) graphic images when it’s of American “atrocities.”
Note that I’m not necessarily complaining that they’re not showing the video. But some of those same media outlets should be asking themselves to what degree showing all of the Abu Ghraib photos may have resulted in this, and why they considered that necessary. After all, couldn’t the viewers have understood what went on in the prison without the graphic images?
And since we’ve been told that even worse photos are coming in the days ahead, perhaps they’ll give the matter a little more consideration before airing them?
I was going to do a satire on the bizarro world in which this actually might occur, but the Ace of Spaces beat me to it. He has other, pertinent aerospace-related news, too.
..engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that they had successfully granted a 200-pound sow the power of flight. “We just grafted four pairs of condor wings on to the pig,” said Henry Fields, project manager of the Winged Wilbur project. “You should see that pig fly. It’s something to behold, I’ll tell you. And we’re going to need flying pig technology in the future, given the widespread effects of global environmental change. The latest reports of the temperatures plummeting in Hell should be a warning to us all.”