The Pentagon is apparently taking heat for their refusal to bomb a funeral in Afghanistan. So I just wanted to be the first to commend the Army officers involved in the decision for their courage in standing up to the bloodthirsty lunatics in the White House who would bring our country down to the level of the terrorists. This is a breath of moral fresh air in the otherwise fetid quagmire into which we have sunk ourselves in the Middle East.
I understand the argument for bombing the funeral: that the terrorists don't play by the rules of the Geneva Convention, or any other of the rules of "civilized" warfare, and so we must engage them on their own terms. I'm sure it's very tempting to get down and roll around in the mud with them, and it's a temptation that our government--and indeed our armed forces--have succumbed to time and time again, bombing civilian populations, firing into crowds, using banned weapons such as fuel-air explosives, etc.
But of course, that's just what the terrorists want. It gives them a sort of retrospective justification for their acts: look, the Americans are as bad as we are. In a long, drawn out war such as this, it's easy to forget who drew first blood, and who escalated the conflict. And that's pretty much what the people of the Middle East already think, that is, that we're the bad guys. And the terrorists, with the natural appeal of underdogs, are coming increasingly to look like valiant freedom fighters.
That's why we must be careful to make a clear moral distinction between our values and those of the terrorists, and not just a rhetorical distinction, but a distinction in practice. We need to draw a hard and fast line that we will not cross, even it means danger to ourselves: we won't intentionally kill civilians, we won't torture, etc. That's the only way to win the Middle Eastern people over to our way of thinking--Democracy, or whatever you want to call it.
That we should be having such discussions at all in the year 2006 is somewhat disturbing in itself. Bomb a funeral! Can you imagine?! What are we, the mob? And this should be a lesson for Bush as well. His warrantless intelligence gathering, his sponsorship of torture and secret prisons, have no place in a free society. And let me add here too a word of commendation for the work of Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, who is standing up to Bush and his thugs on the issue of warantless surveillance. She has taken some heat for not providing sufficient legal analysis to back up her decision. But the arguments are there, in common sense and in the constitution, where they always have been. In most people's cases, they know what's right, it's only the backbone that's lacking.
Let's hope our military leaders and soldiers, as well as our judges and politicians, have the courage to take a stand against any further such moral enormities in the future. Bush can't go it alone: he needs flunkies to do his bidding. And the more people there are to stand up to him, the quicker the war, and Bush's own dastardly tenure, will come to an end.
Ed Hamilton - www.hotelchelseablog.com.