The Difference between America and Al-Qaeda

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

It's been 3 weeks since the pictures of the abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib appeared. What do we know now that was not immediately obvious? We know that some small number of our young troops are possibly too deeply steeped in the pornographic "free sex" climate of the internet and have lost sight of proper behavior. We know that the problem was not being covered up by the military, but rather that the military was in fact already prosecuting the issue. The investigation started because a brave soldier, Army Spec. Joseph Darby, 24, an Army Reservist and member of the 372nd Military Police Co. reported up the chain of command that this intolerable behavior is not acceptable. It was not CBS that found the problem.

We also now know, via the internet, that Al-Qaeda has a horrible way of expressing the murderous beliefs of their corrupt version of Islam. To them, the hacking off an innocent American head, such as Nicholas Berg, is laudable and something to celebrate. I hope that the American people can now see the abuse in a different light. Even if the major media and press outlets don't agree, I think most of us are able to look at the two events in a reasonable light. Neither is acceptable.

The difference is that in the case of the Americans, we are seeking justice against the persons that acted inappropriately. In the case of the terrorists, there are no serious critics of the action from the Arab world. In fact, a search of the web page for Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) (America's largest Islamic civil liberties group) returns no mention of either Nick Berg, Nicholas Berg or beheading. There has been consistently little or no criticism of the barbaric acts committed by anyone other than the US.

President Bush needs to steel himself to continue the necessary processes in Iraq. He needs to be a lot less sensitive to the complaints about our troops and actions from political opponents or unreasonable pundits or even the Iraqi Governing Council. His support would surely improve if he were to show the resolute George Bush we all saw after 9/11. The country needs to remember the reason we need to prevail in this war--World War III or IV (depends on weather you count the cold war as WWIII). The alternative is unthinkable.