THEY USE GAS CHMABERS; WE DO IT WITH FIREBOMBINGS AND NUKES:

They Behead; We Do It With Smart Bombs (Michael Takiff, July 4, 2004, LA Times)

Referring to the beheading of Nicholas Berg, one U.S. senator said, "I think it highlights the differences between the way we do business and, so frequently, our adversaries do business." Islamic terrorists have since beheaded another American and a South Korean.

Moral self-congratulation is an addiction in our nation. That we believe in "the American way," whatever that phrase may mean at any given time, signals our narcissistic satisfaction over the way we "do business." These depraved murders offer another occasion to pat ourselves on the back, another distraction from the true business of the Iraq war and all war: killing.

But then, it's an article of faith in our public discourse that we wage war differently from our enemies. At present, we luxuriate in our moral superiority over thugs who behead the innocent, but all along we have deemed ourselves civilized warriors in Iraq. We have based that opinion on our methods, which permit us to deny the death we have wrought, and our motives, which let us justify it.

At the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, we marveled at our miraculous weapons, "smart bombs" that pinpointed what the president called "targets of military significance" — not only military facilities but government buildings, power stations, communications towers. During the war's "major combat phase," March 19 through May 1, 2003, we fired several thousand of these guided weapons into crowded Iraqi cities. Had we stopped to think about it, we might have acknowledged that our brave new technology had not in fact made civilian casualties a thing of the past.

Here's a pretty basic difference between the Right and the Left: the Right joins the Left in wishing Mr. Berg had his head back, but the Left is alone in its apparent with that Saddam were still the head of Iraq.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 5, 2004 9:05 AM