The media swarm upon stories, be they real or fiction, of abuse of detainees by American soldiers. A firestorm is launched after footage of an American soldier, engaged in an brutal urban conflict in Fallujah against an enemy known to attack after feigning death or injury, shoots a wounded, unarmed enemy in a moment of reaction. Pentagon announcements of abuse investigations are paid scant attention; months later, pictures that drove that investigation blanket the airwaves, smother the front pages of newpapers and covers of magazines, and drives calls for justice that was already proceeding.
Meanwhile, the atrocious nature of our enemy gets a relative pass.
The abuse story of Abu Ghraib draws far more sensationalism than beheadings by the terrorists. Every terrorist bombing against the Iraqi populace is cast as a failure of the U.S. and Iraqi forces to provide security rather than what it really is — murder. One particular filmmaker paints these murderers as revolutionaries and calling them Minutemen. Well, let’s take a little look at some recent tactics of these brave heroes.
I’ve pointed before to the story of a would-be suicide bomber who was being blackmailed with the safety of his kidnapped family. Now, there’s the tale put forth by some “Minutemen” bombers who are claiming they were lied to about their targets.
Wisam Younis’ sole ambition in life, he said Friday, is to kill Americans. So he claimed surprise when he discovered his car bomb had killed eight Iraqis and wounded more than 80 outside a Baghdad restaurant.
Younis and brothers Badr and Yassin Shakir are charged with murder and face the death penalty in the May 23 attack.
“We did not know that the attack would target innocent people and we were deceived,” said Younis, barefooted and with bruised and swollen hands. He said they were taken in by enthusiastic ideas and money, adding that an insurgent leader promised $1,500 for the bombing.
Ah, it just stirs to mind all of the tales of George Washington sending men to blow up colonists with promises of Redcoat victims. Hat tip to Inside the Bullpen, where Chad gives his thoughts on the story.
Remember the stories of the Abu Ghraib detainees being threatened with dogs? Remember the outrage? Well, where’s the outrage when the terrorists use dogs themselves, only in a far more ghastly, heartless manner?
Insurgents in Iraq attached explosives to a dog and tried to blow up a military convoy near the northern oil centre of Kirkuk.
The canine bomb went off but the only casualty was the unfortunate animal, said police. The militants wrapped an explosive belt around the dog and detonated it as the convoy passed through Dakuk, 25 miles south of Kirkuk, said the town’s police chief, Col Mohammed Barzaji.
“The dog was torn apart by the explosion which caused neither injury among the soldiers nor any damage.”
Col Barzaji said the bomb had been detonated outside a Shia mosque. “Eight suspects have been detained.”
This was not the first time that animals have been used in insurgent attacks. In 2003, donkey carts were used to conceal makeshift multiple rocket launchers in a flurry of attacks in Baghdad. Animal carcasses and human corpses have been used to conceal explosives.
Hat tip to Outside the Beltway, where Dr. James Joyner adds hopefully that this is “type of thing might actually generate some outrage from some quarters in the West” who refuse to face the fact that are opponents are cold-blooded, murderous bastards.
I hold know such hope. Neither seemingly, does The Moderate Voice‘s Joe Gandelman, who asks, “Well, if they’ve already used ambulences and kids, why is this surprising?”
It isn’t surprising at all, as this is the nature of the foe we face. It’s just that the true face of our enemy doesn’t carry any weight in the media.