June 13, 2006
"If you are sane, come celebrate the moment with us, but if not, get prepared to mourn more demons."
Mohammed Fadhil of Iraq the Model has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about the reaction to Zarqawi's death -- by Iraqi and non-Iraq Arabs.
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Strong words indeed coming from people who have been gassed and put through plastic shredders. If Omar is correct, that 90% of non-Iraqi Arabs regard zaqawri as a hero, then we certainly are in the throes of a clash of civilizations, and the clash is just getting started. How much can we cheapen life and still call ourselves distinct from 'them', the other side? They regard us as butchers and monsters every bit as much for celebrating the death of zaqawri that was accompanied by the death of civilians. There is nary a tear shed for the young wife and the child killed along side of zaqawri. He sawed off heads, we disintegrate with bombs and claim to hold the moral trump card in it all. The heroes are the victors only because they can trumpet their success and moral righteousness the loudest and to a certain extent, silence the voices of the vanquished. It is a nasty, dirty business we have all gotten ourselves into and I see no end in sight, nor can I see our grandchildren holding any of us in very high esteem.
Good for the WSJ! They basically just reprinted his June 11th posting from his blog, but it's a posting that deserves wider distribution. It's one of his best.
Im all for making war very, very nasty, brutish and short but there is no profit in that for either side, now is there?
I don't mourn Zarqawi for a moment, but I don't "celebrate" his death either. I don't celebrate any death, and I don't consider it "sane" to do so.
I think, Goesh, there is a profit. The enemy is playing out what it thinks is a morally superior ideological and tactical war. Every battle, every victory, counts. Every Muslim they kill, every town they ruin, counts. The Iraqis celebrated because their tormentor was brought low. He did not become another Saddam. He lost. So maybe too can his ideology be brought low. That's worth celebrating.
goesh said... There is nary a tear shed for the young wife and the child killed along side of zaqawri.
Unless there has been an update of which I'm unaware (always a possibility), reports of a child dying in the bombing were incorrect according to Major General Bill Caldwell.
non-Iraqi Arabs have told us their plans. We can either sit idly by and watch them do this as they already have in parts of Europe and Australia and wait for their next attack here or we can beard them in their own land
This expresses the core cognitive dissonance with our being in Iraq. We're not bearding "them" in "their own land" as it is the NON-Iraqi Arabs that foster the idea of jihad against Westerners. If "them" refers to non-Iraq Arabs, then we're not in "their" den; instead, we've brought our fight into someone else's den, the Iraqis' den, where non-Iraqi Arabs now foment violence against us in Iraq, and against the Iraqi people, who we can't seem to decide how to refer to, as our enemies, or as our allies. Before we invaded Iraq, Zarqawi wasn't there, directing violent attacks that kill Iraqis. We helped bring about the presence of al Queda as a player in Iraq.
Goesh: You cannot possibly be serious.
How much can we cheapen life and still call ourselves distinct from 'them', the other side? ... There is nary a tear shed for the young wife and the child killed along side of zaqawri. He sawed off heads, we disintegrate with bombs and claim to hold the moral trump card in it all.
No, we have the moral trump card because we kill those who kill innocents. We may kill others in the process, but we deliberately try to avoid it. The kids I feel sorry for. The wife, no.
Terrorists just kill innocents, their intent is to kill harmless people, and they try to kill as many as possible.
There is no moral equivalence at all. When US soldiers start stuffing bombs in dead children so they can kill the parents as they bury their child, then you can talk about moral equivalence.
It is a nasty, dirty business we have all gotten ourselves into and I see no end in sight, nor can I see our grandchildren holding any of us in very high esteem.
I wouldn't worry about the grandchildren. If you're a baby-boomer, your children already don't hold you in very high esteem.
I feel sorry for all of them. It just so happens I also feel happy some of them are dead.
dick, your choice is a false dilemma, between invading someone, anyone, and doing nothing. That's hardly our option. Michael, no one, not a single person, has argued Zarqawi was an "innocent goat-herder,
" or that he was driven to his deeds by righteous anger at America. If you have to misrepresent me to respond to me, you fail to make much of an argument. Zarqawi, and al Queda, pose a threat to America, and have, before our invasion of Iraq. We don't get from there to proving Iraq posed a threat to us. My point is that our terms are fuzzy; "they" and "them" can be just about anyone in the Middle East. Bearding "them" in "their" den, or the flypaper theory, is a weak defense of an ill-justified war. Argue it about our invasion of Afghanistan, and you'll find me in unqualified agreeement.
In a war against a stateless, or pan-statist, enemy, it's not a false dilemna at all. Bush's analysis of Saddam's role in supporting terrorism is actually a more accurate (and nuanced!) one if you look at the actual practice of 20th century terrorism. And Saddam was not "anyone," but a funder of terrorism and in violation of the treaty after the first Gulf War. But you know my talking points and I know yours. I guess we will have to wait for history's verdict on it all. I hope and pray we finish the job for the Fadhils and all the other Iraqis who hope for freedom and a decent life.
As previously pointed out, Zarqawi was already in Iraq. Just before that, by most accounts, he was in ... Iran! Which reportedly expelled him but sent him to northern Iraq to cause some trouble among the Kurds.
It's just amazing to me how much misinformation there is about Zarqawi and other terrorists/troublemakers and what was going on in Iraq BEFORE our invasion.
I recently had someone start to argue with me about whether Saddam Hussein had provided money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, including members of Hamas. No, that person insisted, Saddam NEVER provided support/encouragement for terrorists.
Sigh.
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