"At Least We Don't Behead People"

Maureen Dowd has a great editorial in the New York Times today (link), in wich she talks about the U.S. in Iraq, prisoner abuse, and such. Among many cogent statements is this one:

The Bush hawks, so fixated on making the Middle East look more like America, have made America look un-American. Should we really be reduced to defending ourselves by saying at least we don't behead people?

Ever since the Sixties, some of us have been saying that war is an atrocity -- not so much because of the death and destruction, but because of the way we human beings behave in war. Or, as someone has surely said, it's not what war does to the defeated, as what it does to the conquerors. In this case, in Dowd's phrase, this war has made America look un-American.

If we are to go to war (and I do believe that there are circumstances under which war is justifiable and even necessary), then at least let it truly be a last resort, and let us remain always conscious of the potential of war to turn us into monsters, and guard against that potential.

When will they ever learn?

M.