A very loose* paraphrase of a jaw-dropping exchange between Oliver North and Alan Colmes on “Hannity and Colmes” moments ago:
North: “These masked terrorists took a long knife and sawed the head off of this young American civilian contractor, then held his severed head aloft in front of the camera while yelling ‘God is great.’ Yes, what happened in Abu Ghraib prison was terrible and should never be condoned. But let’s not lose perspective –“
Colmes: ” — Well, I don’t want to lose perspective either, but I don’t like to rush to judgment –“
North: “– Wait, ‘rush to judgment’? We need to judge behavior like this. This is the face of your enemy, Alan. There is no moral equivalency between what these animals did and what happened in Abu Ghraib prison, is there?”
Well, is there…?
****
*very very very loose. As in, it’s quite possible not a single word has been transcribed correctly. But I believe I’ve captured the spirit of the exchange.
update: I know this outrage… And I’ve had these thoughts. And these.
update 2: Jonah Goldberg. And more.
update 3: “H&C” transcript, courtesy Henry Hanks.
update 4: A poem
Colmes has been so brain washed all his life that he really can’t see the difference between torture and death of an innocent civilian doing a job to help put Iraq back together and photo ops of very bad people in degrading situations with faux torture. These prisoners aren’t frat boys. They have no dignity to preserve and probably should have been executed immediately to avoid just situations like this.
Gordon Liddy is right. Make sure the other guy is dead. Then nobody can contradict your version of the facts.
We have been bending over backward to keep civilian deaths at an absolute minimum. Maybe it’s time reduce to rubble all the areas harboring terrorists.
Maybe it’s time reduce to rubble all the areas harboring terrorists.
Bounce the rubble, then turn it into glass.
What the prisoners in Abu Grabass prison experienced is NOTHING. Hell, there are people that go on vacation and pay good money to partake in activities such as those.
As for them being humiliated…who should care! It pales in comparison to what they themselves are guilty of. Let us not forget, for the vast majority of these prisoners are NOT NICE people.
PHUCK THEM. I think they should play the video of
Mr. Berg’s execution non-stop for a week, that way people can see what the enemy looks like.
Death to Islam! Death to the Islamic Animals.
Analog Roam
You wrote the exchange pretty much as I heard it too. Even after being on the show many times, I think Ollie was taken aback by Colmes’ willful stupidity.
Is Colmes related to Jimmy Carter?
Liberals such as Colmes are understandably distraught over the beheading of an American by members of the religion of peace. First it stole the headlines from their congressional inquisition, then it made a mockery of the words used by the liberals to describe the ass-kicking a few of our soldiers gave a few Iraqi prisoners: horrifying, atrocious, torture, etc.
I totally agree that what happened to the Iraqi POWs and the civilian contractor are two very seperate things. The Iraqis weren’t tortured (with the exception of a few cases) but abused. Small difference maybe, but torture is for a specific goal of gathering information and usually entails much more than what they got (read some Vietnam POW tales). Abuse can range from a slap on the head to what we have seen in our own prison(s). No glass inserted into the penis and then slammed with a hammer. Also, they were being held for hostile actions, of one sort or another, aainst American soldiers or the newly created Iraqi police.
The American contractor was captured for simply being an American. He was abused (indicated by abuse found on his body), brutally beheaded, and his body displayed on a bridge. All broadcasted as an exammple to others and I’ll go on a limb and say entertainment for those that would agree with those actions.
I am disgusted with the majority of the media playing this down, giving it little air time (focusing on the Iraqi POWs), and focusing on the statement that this is “retaliation” for the Iraqi abuse. He would have died no matter what! This isn’t the first web beheading they have done. There was one circulating email and internet a year or two ago. (Can’t find a link now that I would want to).
The media should be ashamed of their biased takes on events such as these. Just gives us the damn facts and let us decide what we think.
Oh, and the rushing to judge comment was obviously a brainfart. You know that the moment the Iraqi POW story broke, judgment as “BAD” crossed everyone’s mind.
(Note to Analog Roam: ‘Death to Islam’ may not be the right place to stnad as there are Muslims that don’t partake in military actions against us. Some are even *gasp* AMERICANS! Statements like yors may only inflame the situation. just maybe).
These terrorists who have murdered an innocent civilian in such a barbaric manner have done so with great calculation. Aside from making all civilian contractors afraid to help the Iraqi people, they have sent a message to our own homegrown liberal press. “This isn’t a legitimate war this is a cycle of violence which you Americans have started.” Just watch.
I never thought in my life I would ever say, “I agree with Oliver North.”
I should have seen it coming. Back in the ‘80s, G.Gordon Liddy came to the University of North Carolina to give a speech. He talked about American’s ignorance of what events are like outside our borders, and he likened it to a dangerous street we’re walking down, with all kinds of not-very-nice people in the shadows, waiting.
Of course, the smug teens in the audience chuckled knowingly at this conservative paranoia.