I’ve had a lump in my throat most of the past 24 hours while trying to make sense of the Iraqi jubilation over the dead, burnt bodies of Americans. I can’t help wonder what moves people to such depravity, what silences the inner voice telling people the terror I visit on others today will be visited on me tomorrow. The concept of “there’ll be hell to pay for this” generally keeps people in line, so I wonder: what the hell happened?
Newsdesigner has a bunch of the front pages, which generally show Iraqis mocking the dead, stringing corpses on bridges, celebrating madly.
The pictures say one thing, but I’ve been looking to the stories for more context, more explanation, more something to help me understand, but so far I haven’t seen much. Something has to trigger the barbarian impulse. It’s in all of us, straw waiting for a spark. I’d love to know who lit that spark, but so far all we have is description of the carnage.
Description is fine, as far as it goes, but we need a lot more. Is it fair to ask if yesterday’s atrocities were hell-to-pay for the damage we’ve done to Iraq?
I saw one story which mentioned Iraqi resentment over the high salaries paid to American security personnel. Were these contract employees deliberately targeted to send a message?
We need a lot more answers, and until they arrive it’s wise to suspend judgment on what this whole thing means.
One small point of comfort: if we ever get to the point where gore like this is not news, then we’ve got something serious to worry about.
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