Convincing good people to Kill

15 Jun
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You gotta love this little gem from the always-entertaining George Will (another George W?):

To understand the diabolical genius of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, that pornographer of violence, begin with this:

He was a primitive who understood the wired world and used an emblem of modernity, the Internet, to luxuriate in gore. But although he may have had an almost erotic enjoyment of the gore, it was also in the service of an audacious plan. And he executed it with such brutal efficiency that he became, arguably, the most effective terrorist in history.

This only betrays the GOP strategy of dehumanizing insurgents in order to justify killing, torture, and civilian collateral damage. It's much easier to convince ordinarily good people to do these things when you convince them they're facing a slasher addict / pornographer who is gleefully masturbating behind his keyboard while watching Americans die. It's quite another to acknowledge your own complicity in his creation (while simultaneously abhorring his tactics). But I suppose to do that would be to admit that all this gratuitous killing has been in vain.

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