If I could wish a book into existence this second, that would be the title of it. I would also wish for assistance from the muses to express the complexity of my thoughts about the Berg murder and other war crimes as simply and effortlessly as possible.
Like Raven, I'm disturbed by the mob mentality here, the rush to judgment--extreme judgment--based on the little pieces of information we have about the circumstances of Nicholas Berg's death. But I don't think blame can easily be assigned for this state of affairs.
I don't blame the Bush administration alone and certainly not primarily for Berg's murder. I blame Zarqawi, al Qaeda, Wahhabbism, fundamentalism in general, etc., primarily for that, for creating the conditions in which a single human being is made to stand for "the enemy," for being sick enough not only to commit this crime but to tape it and broadcast it, for being foolish or heartless enough to believe this murder really avenges American war crimes--as if a murder like this could really ever end any cycle of violence!
I do, however, blame the Bush admininstration and the Republicans in power for creating the conditions in which Zarqawi can act like a beast and come off in certain circles like a hero. Yes, the Democrats bear some responsibility for these conditions as well, mainly for not having the courage to stand up to the Republicans, and for not having the courage (maybe) to use all resources when they had the chance to to snap the spine of al Qaeda. But the Republicans are the party in power and holding the reins of American foreign policy. It's they who dreamt up this war in Iraq. It's the Bush administration that unaccountably let Zarqawi's group go at the beginning of the war, and that failed--even actively decided to fail, according to Jim Miklaszewski--to go after Zarqawi several times during the war (see
this story). It's this administration whose creation of the conditions for the mistreatment of Muslim prisoners at Abu Ghraib--and not at Abu Ghraib alone, but in Afghanistan and Guantanamo and even in Brooklyn!--gave Zarqawi an excuse (however lame and phoney) to commit this murder.
And I do blame some members of DU for not stopping to think before they post.
PS: It's the Republicans, by the way--and this was the whole impetus behind my post--who created the conditions in which Americans would so mistrust their government that they would almost automatically assume it would commit a murder of an American citizen like this for political benefit. If the Republicans had not sunk to the level of throwing baseless charges about Clintonian evil in the last decade, if they hadn't sunk to the level of stealing elections by disenfranchizing Democratic voters, if they hadn't sunk to the level of lying shamelessly to have the war they were goingn to have anyway, would we be at this state now? I doubt it!
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
