The above political cartoon appeared recently in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Its creator, Mike Luckovich apparently now thinks the United States is comparable to Al Qaeda in the realm of torture. If the very thought of that doesn't turn your stomach then I wonder about you.While the majority of Americans do not feel the same as Mr. Luckovich, a suprising number do. This sentiment echoes that of Ward Churchill, the embattled University of Colorado professor who compared the victims of the 9/11 attacks with Nazis. That's as asinine a statement as anyone could make, but Churchill stands proudly by it. Even when he's being terminated from his job at Colorado (although the listed reason for his suggested termination is academic misconduct.)
Churchill yesterday on FoxNews Channel's Hannity and Colmes show continued to compare American soldiers to Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Even when Shawn Hannity (rightly) said that there is no comparison between placing underwear on a prisoner's head (as was the case at Gitmo) and the stacks of dead bodies that Hussein had dumped in mass graves. Churchill was belligerent in saying sodomizing prisoners is just as bad.
There's a valid point in Churchill's mad ravings. We should be as outraged as he is when our soldiers treat prisoners like that. As Americans we have a right to expect better behavior and we should expect our soldiers to be above such disgraceful conduct. But saying that behavior is comparable to beheadings, torture rooms, gas chambers, and mass graves is just ridiculous.
Luckovich said his only regret about the above cartoon was that he should have waited a bit longer after two American soldiers were found savegely beaten and murdered in Iraq. Gee Mikey, ya think?
Freedom of speech is a great thing. No one should be thrown in jail for expressing a dissenting opinion. I believe dissension is not only acceptable, but necessary in a democratic society. However, there are consequences to such actions as Mr. Luckovich and Mr. Churchill have displayed. I'm glad Churchill is losing his job as easily as he's lost his mind. I would love to see Mr. Luckovich lose his as well, but I know the AJC better than that. But I hope advertising and subscriptions to the AJC drop like a stone.
2 comments:
Comparing Abu Ghraib and what the two soldiers that were kidnapped went through cannot be compared.
I do agree that we as Americans should provide a better moral example when it comes to some methods and should at the very least, not photgraph and videotape ourselves as we "torture" Al Qaeda prisoners. But compared with what happened to the two American soldiers, anything committed at Abu Ghraib is a nice afternoon out with the kids.
I find the cartoon as disgusting as Ann Coulter calling widows of victims of 9/11 "witches" and saying that no one enjoyed their husband's death as much as they did. It just goes to show that their are idiots on either side of politics.
I am just worried that we will see more instances of what happened at Haditha as these soldiers stay in the heart of combat for a year and longer. How can some of these young men not meet and exceed their breaking point. Something needs to be done to provide some relief for those that have been in the battle the longest. I don't think we can leave yet, not without the whole country falling into civil war, assuming that it hasn't yet, but we need to at least have some sort of plan for the future and I'm not sure either party has any good ideas.
I'm glad you brought up Coulter. I, as a conservative Republican, have been waiting for someone like Coulter to make an idiotic statement to make reflect badly on all of us conservative Republicans.
Way to go Ann!
There certainly are nuts on either side. Coulter's point, lost in all of this, is how a small number of those widows have been opportunistic and that seems wrong. I disagree with her either way.
The Right has it's share of nuts like Coulter, Robertson, and Fallwell. The Left has Churchill, Luckovich, Kerry, and Dean to name a few.
Extremists are the stories in politics because they are by their nature extreme and extreme = newsworthy. What is needed is a sensible leader with the values mirroring the people and not the extremists organizations and sprinkled nuts to unite the country and end this nonsense.
But I'm glad you agree with my main point picc. There's no way I can stomach hearing American soldiers compared to suicide bombing terrorist and insane dictators.
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