March 25, 2003

IS THE US as wicked

IS THE US as wicked as Iraq? Easy question to answer; just imagine by whom you'd rather be held captive. Today's editorial in The Australian:

Events of the past 48 hours have reinforced the moral chasm separating the two parties to the conflict in the Gulf.

Those events include the pictures flashed around the world of US, and Iraqi, prisoners of war. A stunning image on the front of The Weekend Australian on Saturday showed two US Marines giving an exhausted Iraqi soldier a drink after capturing him near the Kuwait border. A day later, however, came much more disturbing images of PoWs. Five US soldiers were seen being interrogated on Iraqi television; one of them, seriously wounded, was mistreated by his interrogators, being dragged into a sitting position to answer questions. But worse was to come, with images of dead US soldiers, some of them appearing to have been executed, being dragged across the floor, shown with their trousers down, and otherwise mistreated by grinning Iraqi officials.

The contrast between these images, and the utterly different treatment of PoWs that they reveal, should serve as a corrective to any drift towards moral relativism regarding the allies in this war, and the regime that they are fighting to disarm.

Should serve, but won't. The whimsically-named "peace movement" is now beyond reach of sensible argument.

Posted by Tim Blair at March 25, 2003 01:47 AM
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