on "winning" the war

"that which you have done to the least of these, you have done to me"

the pictures leave very little to the imagination. the blood and bruising, the swollen eyes and the anguished expression are the picture of a brutal death. yet they are circulated for the purpose of proclaiming victory, a less-than-subtle way of expressing both "look what we're capable of" and "see, they really are losing". yet, at what costs are we "winning"?

on the one hand i was pleased by the publication of the pictures of Uday and Qusay Hussein. not because i am a sadist or because i enjoy the thought of pain. instead, because i think we are de-sensitised to the realities of war. we hear of casualties but are never struck by the significance. we hear of miltary campaigns but forget this means the deaths of real individuals- with families and friends and those who will be struck and left wanting by their loss. the pictures remind us that war means death, that war means brutality and things we're uncomfortable with. it's in becoming squeamish that we're reminded that war should offend our sensibilities.

yet, i am profoundly disturbed by these photos. they are exploitative, revolting and suggest a moral repugnance that should do more than offend. when pictures of dead american soldiers were broadcast, we called it a violation of the geneva conventions. a crime against the rules of war. yet, somehow this broadcast is acceptable. and why? because these men were "brutal" or, as donald rumsfeld puts it, "very bad characters".

this means they do not deserve the geneva conventions. this means that the rules that apply to war, the rules and the spirit we are fighting to protect or "liberate" aren't worth anything when applied to the enemy. it appears that freedom, respect and dignity are only things that come with being moral or being american.

this is the irony of war: that to prove the worth of human life, to prove the respect we owe human dignity and the power we entrust in freedom we must destroy it, desecrate it and cage it. the pictures speak for themselves. that which we have done to the least of these shows what we believe should be done to us all. pity.

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