Quote: yes, outraged at the women and children, etc that were killed with chemical weapons.
Ah, but that was one of the few of Saddam's horrible actions that there are a lot of pictures of. And that's why it was more upsetting.
Pictures make it personal.
That's why people are more outraged about this than they otherwise would be. That's why even the Berg killing is a bigger deal than the dozenss of other US civilian deaths in Iraq.
Like I said, the public has known about the abuse since January but there were no pictures so it wasn't news-worthy. It might have gotten a mention at the most. The same with 99% of the stuff that Saddam did. That's why the outrage wasn't there before.
Stories of horrible things are nothing more than stories. You can deny stories. You can think that stores are over-exaggerated or biased. You can't say that about photos.
I agree with you though -- We need to take a harsh stance on crime, any crime; but particularly crimes of the Berg execution nature. Not an abusive stance. But a harsh one. And not back down.
All of this, including the significance of the prisoner abuse, ties into the same ordeals -- you cannot back down from your word. If you say you're going to bring human rights to these people do it. You cannot talk out of both sides of your mouth.
In the US we live in a world where people are hypocrits on a daily basis. Everything from our peers to our politicians does it. That doesn't fly in other cultures. They see that sort of thing as betrayal; and we need the help of the Iraqi people, not giving them cause to join al-Sadr.
