Posted by: McQ on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 Ed Koch takes a run at the self-flagellation the West puts itself through each and every time something like Haditha or Abu Ghraib appears. He points out that our enemies have no such qualms whatsoever and, in fact, celebrate their inhuman excesses and cruelty. In sharp contrast, Western countries constantly flagellate themselves when civilians are injured or killed in the course of defensive military action against al-Qaeda or its agents.Not only that, the self-flagellation is often, or more accurately, almost always politicized. Again, Haditha immediately springs to mind. I'm sure I don't have to recount the reasons for the politicization of such incidents or the purpose of the self-flagellation. But it does make you wonder, given some of it, if it signals a more general trend toward the acceptance of political moral relevance as an acceptable argument. And, if so, isn't that a sign of increasing moral weakness in the West? Let me be clear. I don't accept or condone murder, torture or purposeful cruelty. And I do indeed find the death of any innocent person in a war to be tragic. We should avoid them if it at all humanly possible. When there is a question, we should investigate and examine the evidence, and, if compelling, charge and punish the perpetrators. But what I don't and can't accept is the moral relevance which equates deliberate acts of barbaric murder with tragic accidents of war. As Ed Koch says: On the death of Zarqawi who murdered his son, Nick's father, Michael, now a Green Party candidate for congress in Delaware, said:I fully agree, those words are insane. But, obviously, they aren't atypical of some. They are nonsense on a stick and should be pointed too and called that everytime their equivalent is seen. While it is appropriate to ask moral questions and require moral action of ourselves in war, moral relevance - as that displayed above - is as unacceptable as murder. |
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