SlowpokeBlog

So the pinhead spin on the torture and killing of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib goes something like "no one apologized to us for 9-11" and "the torture is nothing compared to acts like the beheading of Nick Berg" or worse, "the beheading justifies the torture."

Well. Let us explore how grotesquely simple-minded this "logic" is. Basically, it assumes that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are synonomous with Iraqi civilians; that all the peoples of Central Asia and the Middle East are one monolithic Evil Brown Person. If one of these "people" commits an act of terrorism, the rest are guilty by association. This is the same stupid stereotyping that Islamic radicals engage in when talking about the West. And it is incredibly dangerous.

I shouldn't have to point out that the prisoners in Abu Ghraib aren't the same individuals who murdered Nick Berg -- the Red Cross reported that 70-90% of them were innocent of anything -- but so many Americans seem incapable of even this slight level of complexity of thought.

See War on Stupidity cartoon from 2001.