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Jewish World Review August 9, 2005 / 4 Av, 5765 A news cycle without Amnesty? An outrage By Kathryn Lopez
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
A recently released Amnesty International report highlights the
cold-blooded attacks, assassinations, suicide bombings, and civilian
and aid worker killings carried out by terrorists in Iraq.
It may seem pointless that Amnesty has to explain that
"international humanitarian law strictly prohibits the intentional
killing of people who are not taking an active part in the
hostilities. It also prohibits torture or any form of inhuman
treatment."
Does anyone really doubt that this is a pure evil, which civilized
people cannot tolerate?
Take, for instance, one mid-July suicide bombing in Baghdad. U.S.
troops and the Iraqi children they were handing out candy and toys
to were the target. Twenty-seven people were slaughtered, including
18 children. As the Associated Press reported: "Parents heard the
shattering explosion and raced out to discover children's mangled,
bloodied bodies strewn on the street in the Shiite Muslim
neighborhood."
Of course, anyone reading this was horrified.
Or are they? Recently, MSNBC's Monica Crowley received grief for
daring, during a broadcast, to take on an Islamic scholar, who was
not only advocating suicide bombing but admitting that he'd
volunteer if he ever had "the opportunity." Speaking on Syrian TV,
Saddam Hussein apologist George Galloway, a member of Britain's
parliament, wants you to believe George W. Bush and Tony Blair are
the real terrorists.
But it's not just extremist scholars and dangerously nutty
politicians with such myopic views. Amnesty International's "In Cold
Blood" report should be screamed from the rooftops, in part,
frankly, to mitigate the mess Amnesty created when it decided to
equate President Bush with Joseph Stalin by making the ludicrous
contention that the enemy-combatant prison we have in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, is "the gulag of our times."
We in the United States actually respect human rights. There are
lapses — which are investigated and prosecuted as they absolutely
should be. But we're still coming from the "life, liberty ..."
mindset, as are our closest allies.
What better irony have we seen of late than the failed subway bomber
in England, who when arrested in Notting Hill declared, "I have
rights." Terrorist though he may be, Ramzi Mohammed got it.
It's a message I'm not sure we all really understand. Consider, for
instance, how many of us have not had to really give serious thought
to what Saddam Hussein did to people when Iraq was his to tyrannize.
One torture tape discovered in Iraq showed fedayeen (Hussein's
military) gleefully slicing off a tongue; whipping a prisoner so
badly that the Roman beating scene from Mel Gibson's "The Passion"
was a preschool timeout by comparison; severing a man's hand — you
get the idea. Yes, these were brought to you by Saddam Hussein, the
man who is getting a trial in the liberated Iraq, complete with
legal representation; the same "butcher of Baghdad," who has been
held under the watchful visiting eyes of international human-rights
monitors.
Why do I relive all of this, besides to kill your appetite for the
day? Because this month in Basra, a writer whom I was fortunate
enough to publish, Steven Vincent, was murdered by these same bad
guys who murder "in cold blood." Vincent was killed because he did
something they couldn't tolerate — he told the truth, what he saw
on the ground there.
But that's what the enemy we are fighting in the war on terror does.
Sometimes they do it with a specific target in mind for a particular
purpose. Sometimes the kill is just to send a message — "leave us
alone to tyrannize and terrorize" — punctuated with dead bodies.
Regard for human rights, or even basic humanity, is simply not
there.
Despite his monstrous acts against his own people, Hussein (who gets
all the Doritos he wants in prison) knows that. If he didn't, if
Saddam thought we wouldn't respect his rights and be as ruthless as
he, do you think he'd have surrendered as quietly as he did?
I wonder if our own media elite understand this.
Describing the foreign jihadist fighters who kill in Iraq, Amnesty
writes, "those who order or commit such atrocities place themselves
totally beyond the pale of acceptable behaviour. There is no honour
(or) heroism in blowing up people going to pray or murdering a
terrified hostage. Those carrying out such acts are criminals,
nothing less, whose actions undermine any claim they may have to be
pursuing a legitimate cause."
Those who are lethally anxious to stop democracy (and who, by the
way, want most of us — you and I — dead) from happening are
different than us. Intentionally or not, that becomes clear from
reading this recent Amnesty report, even if you're not hearing too
much about it.
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Mitch Albom | |||||||||||
