In “The Killing of Atwar Bahjat”, Greyhawk points us to a graphic [warning: not for the week of stomach] Times UK account of the murder of Iraqi journalist Atwar Bahjat.
What one is left with, after reading the piece, is twofold, I think: first, the unquestionable brutality and arrogant ideological certainty of our enemies, whose mindset is borne in some cases of odious fundamentalist religious “convictions”, but in other cases is simply content to use those convictions perfunctorily to justify their nihilistic barbarism and sadism. Second, that barbarism and sadism—and the nihilism that drips from it—will, if we’re not careful, find us trying to make sense of something that is designed to trouble rational comprehension, the result being that we assign “reasons” to fill the vaccuum left by the inhumanity we have “witnessed”:
EVEN by the stupefying standards of Iraq’s unspeakable violence, the murder of Atwar Bahjat, one of the country’s top television journalists, was an act of exceptional cruelty.
Nobody but her killers knew just how much she had suffered until a film showing her death on February 22 at the hands of two musclebound men in military uniforms emerged last week. Her family’s worst fears of what might have happened have been far exceeded by the reality.
Bahjat was abducted after making three live broadcasts from the edge of her native city of Samarra on the day its golden-domed Shi’ite mosque was blown up, allegedly by Sunni terrorists.
Roadblocks prevented her from entering the city and her anxiety was obvious to everyone who saw her final report. Night was falling and tensions were high.
Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. It was reported at the time that she had been shot dead with her cameraman and sound man.
We now know that it was not that swift for Bahjat. First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but particularly so for a pious Muslim who concealed her hair, arms and legs from men other than her father and brother.
Then her arms were bound behind her back. A golden locket in the shape of Iraq that became her glittering trademark in front of the television cameras must have been removed at some point  it is nowhere to be seen in the grainy film, which was made by someone who pointed a mobile phone at her as she lay on a patch of earth in mortal terror.
By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.
It is stained with blood that trickles from a wound on the left side of her head. She is moaning, although whether from the pain of what has already been done to her or from the fear of what is about to be inflicted is unclear.
Just as Bahjat bore witness to countless atrocities that she covered for her television station, Al-Arabiya, during Iraq’s descent into sectarian conflict, so the recording of her execution embodies the depths of the country’s depravity after three years of war.
A large man dressed in military fatigues, boots and cap approaches from behind and covers her mouth with his left hand. In his right hand, he clutches a large knife with a black handle and an 8in blade. He proceeds to cut her throat from the middle, slicing from side to side.
Her cries  “Ah, ah, ah† can be heard above the “Allahu akbar†(God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.
Even then, there is no quick release for Bahjat. Her executioner suddenly stands up, his job only half done. A second man in a dark T-shirt and camouflage trousers places his right khaki boot on her abdomen and pushes down hard eight times, forcing a rush of blood from her wounds as she moves her head from right to left.
Only now does the executioner return to finish the task. He hacks off her head and drops it to the ground, then picks it up again and perches it on her bare chest so that it faces the film-maker in a grotesque parody of one of her pieces to camera.
The voice of one of the Arab world’s most highly regarded and outspoken journalists has been silenced. She was 30.
[my emphasis]
The author of the piece, Hala Jaber, was a friend of Bahjat’s—so seeing her murdered on film must have been nearly unbearable.
Still, as Greyhawk points out, pace Jaber’s suggestion that “[Bahjat’s] execution embodies the depths of the country’s depravity after three years of war” and Iraq’s “descent into sectarian conflict”:
In truth, it represents a depth of depravity achieved over centuries. From the description, her killers hadn’t just conceived or improvised their method execution on the spot—they seem to have been well practiced. But such is the nature of the enemy in this war, and perhaps this is their most sacred and well honed knowledge: if a brutality can be inflicted that exceeds all human ability to comprehend, the humans will find a way to deny it.
Or excuse it.
Or simply look the other way.
Ms Bahjat’s murderers remain unidentified (Greyhawk has some ideas; her funeral procession was twice attacked)—and frankly, whether they were Sunni insurgents or some other group seems almost beside the point.
What is important is that, as Greyhawk notes in the introduction to his post, this type of showy brutality “is typical of the work of Islamic terrorists,” and is useful for those who wish a “bit of insight into the nature of the enemy in this global war.”
Our own media feels the need to shield us from such brutality, even as they report daily on the US and Iraqi death count—or seemed almost to fetishize the torture photos from Abu Ghraib.
But presuming to protect us from the nature of our enemy, like many of the MSM’s other actions in framing the war on terror, is irresponsible—and either presumptuously paternalistic, or cynically calculating.
True, there is a fine line between “war porn” and the dissemination of information. But we nevertheless have the right to know who it is we are fighting. Because knowing just might have an impact on how we, as a country, feel about the necessity of carrying out the fight—and how far we are willing to go to see our enemy vanquished.
****
update: See my follow-up post here.
Unfortunately this type of showy brutality is typical of the islamic culture, enemy and non-enemy alike. Our hamstringing rules of engagement and the popular media propaganda efforts on behalf of islam encourages more of this type of behavior.
Amazing. How anyone could suggest that such behavior is a result of the American invasion is beyond me. How sad for Uday Hussein that he would be forgotten so quickly.
How anyone could think our immediate withdrawal and surrendering of Iraq to these savages is the moral thing to do is what most amazes me.
Pablo, I remember Chomsky’s final acceptance (after years of trying to cover it up) of the Cambodian genocide and that was his explanation for it. The bad old americans make then do it. For a man of his supposed eruditeness, it funny that he sounded like a frumpy Flip Wilson.
I wonder when the MSM and the sinister side of the blogosphere starting making excuses for them like they did with Zarqawi.
And I suppose that Greenwald would make some sort of exuse why the gloves shouldn’t come off for this also.
You know, a story like this almost makes me sympathize with Saddam Hussins heavy handed methods of population control. Some of those people are animals without a shread of civilized decency in them.
I would have no problem feeding those butchers into an industrial shreader feet first. Not that I would enjoy it, but there would be a certain feeling of satisfaction.
Except for the fact that these goons would have been Saddam’s feeders rather than feedees.
Unfortunately lee, you have it the opposite way ‘round. Who do you think was feeding people into the shredders, feet first? Begins with ‘B’ and ends with ‘aathists’, aka the ‘insurgies’.
I remember Ralph Peters described the archetypes of warriors once: the Patriot fighting the good fight, the Professional doing his job, the Child Soldier caught up in the friction, and the Murderer doing in war what he cannot do in life. Americans are used to Professionals leading Patriots.
But other nations, and ‘nations’, put Murderers as stewards over their Child Soldiers.
Damn you, B MOE!!!
This is one of the main things we’re fighting against in teh war on terror. The arrogant ideological certainty of our enemies. To better do this, we should shed our white guilt.
The Arabs of the Middle East have thru out history been known for their subhuman vicious brutality. They are also known to prefer what we are now calling terrorist tactics, but have been used by Arabs for centuries; the sneak attack, capture and torture meant to instill fear in their opponents. It is so much a part of the culture and psyche of these people that when the Koran was written it of course encouraged torture of one’s enemies. If they do this to other Muslims then what will they do to Infidels? Yet, every time I do a post or a comment about Muslims some love thy neighbor nut case who hasn’t yet gotten the big picture even after 9/11 calls me a racist or worse. And much worse than these fools is our press who wish to demonize Americans while treating these acts of unbelievable cruelty as being performed by a few fringe groups. It seems however that the European and Australian press is beginning to accept and publish the truth.
And the left needs to embrace and accept its guilt for the acts of people whom it has embraced. It needs to do penance for the killing fields of Cambodia, the famines of Stalin’s USSR, and on and on.
The arrogant ideological certainty of self-righteous leftists is another of the main things we’re fighting against, just not strictly in the current war.
“Except for the fact that these goons would have been Saddam’s feeders rather than feedees.”
Yes, I know. That’s why I qualified with ”almost sympathize”. Saddam is no better than the savages that tortured to death Atwar.
I admit. Stalin and cambodia were my fault. Specially the latter, since it was my bombs that led to the rise of the Khmer.
We need to eliminate it with professional ruthlessness.
Obligatory ignore acthole comment.
Please don’t feed the acthole.
Don’t even get near it, it is approaching black hole levels of density today.
I’m sure this will also be completely ignored by the MSM, when it is something that most certainly shouldn’t be. How many articles were written or produced about Abu Ghraib or the false accusations of the US military targeting the media? Here is a female member of the media being tortured & brutally killed & they they’ll just turn their heads not because it sheds a negative light on Muslims, but can inadvertently justify the actions of the US in the Middle East by informing the world of the true nature of those that we are fighting there. How many condemnations for this from the feminist crowd are there going to be? How many exposés or demands to the UN to investigate this violation of the Geneva Conventions? How many front page NYT articles or op-ed pieces will there? How many condemnations from the multiple human rights organizations like Amnesty International will there be? Answer is none & not because these actions shouldn’t be, but because they do not fit in nicely w/ the Liberal view of the world & re-enforce the view held by the current Administration. In fact, Amnesty International’s homepage has 2 front page articles about America creating a climate of torture & another about how the majority of reporters killed were by US or Iraqi National forces.
Off topic warbing.
Iran has had another earthquake. Does anyone know if monitoring equipment can discern the difference between a quake and an underground explosion?
I’m just curious that they seem to have an epidemic of earthquakes in the last couple of years.
Hmmm.
All multiculturalists please take one step forward.
ed,
So true. Who are we: white privileged, racist, environment destroying, patriarchal fundies slouching toward our own theocracy headed by a triumvirate (Falwell, Robertson and Dobson) to object to the rightful chastisement of a woman who did not know her place.
Actus, you can join in the chorus now…
rls,
The seismic signatures are different enough to distinguish them.
Thanks.
Not to sound TOO multiculturalist, but is the point here that this is typical of muslims and that the MSM doesn’t get on this b/c then the world will see just how despicable the muslims really are?
If so, who are we liberating? Non-muslims? The country is being set up so that Islamic law is a fundemental component of the government. Shouldn’t you demand that Islam be banished from the law-making process if it inevitably leads to this?
And wasn’t this reported in February? Why is it that the only mention (in the blogosphere) comes when brutal video is revealed?
Isn’t that actually exactly what happened with Abu Ghraib?
Tell me GS, which American soldier cut the throats, and which other american soldier used the power drill? I ‘m sorry, but you are beyond parody.
Grand Slam,
Please don’t argue with actus.
Thanks.
No.
It isn’t inevitable, so no.
Yes.
Are you brain damaged? It was reported in February.
No.
Huh. The millions of ME inhabitants not particpating in such acts don’t figure into the equation, eh?
Here you go RDub: HISTORY
Might clear a few things up for you.
RDub, Were you in outer space or just spaced out when millions of Muslims rioted, burned and killed over a few silly cartoons? BB
B Moe: Let’s settle down there. Don’t think that I’m unaware of the scope of what the civilized world is up against. That’s not the case, I assure you. The dismissive tone of Brenda’s post (essentially “all is lost with them, so why even try”) was what I was questioning.
Horrific.
One thing I have a problem with in this account:
It is enough to say it was a humiliation for any woman. Beyond humiliation for any woman. To be stripped naked by abductors doing violence to you, to be drilled and slashed while being video taped with your breasts exposed is not particularly humiliating for a pious woman. It would be horrendous for any woman to endure, and it demeaning to all women to suggest otherwise.
No, their near-complete silence, from top to bottom, figures in quite prominently.
This sort of thing happens again, and again, and again, and again, and in the name of their god. Their reaction? At best, condemnation for Western audiences. Thanks to MEMRI and others, we know what comes out of the speakers at the holiest shrines, we know what their holy men say again, and again, and again. And it’s not condemnation of these acts. There is no prominent Muslim outside of the United States (and I’d love to think there’s some here, but I don’t) who condemns these acts without equivocation, without resorting to that ‘but’. Who will stand up in public and say, again and again, for each brutal murder, that this is wrong, that it must stop, that there is no Heaven for these murderers, that the people must turn them in, must turn on them, that the martyrdom so valued might be gained by bringing those men to justice.
But does silence equal consent? When horrors such as this are comitted in the name of a god that they claim requires peace, love and brotherhood, yes. If they do nothing, their inaction puts the lie to their claims of peacefulness.
*sigh*
Noah D,
Well said.
Yes, I agree 100%. I wasn’t trying to imply otherwise; I wish we heard more about how the was majority of Muslims are as horrified by this shit as I am. Instead, we get variations on the Sullivan gambit: “Bush/Jews/Mason/etc. did it/made them so crazy they had to do it.”
Either way, my point was that I have trouble just writing off so many people so simply. Guess we’ll see how this plays out.
If past is any precedent, we’ll wait in vain for any substantive cry of outrage or condemnation of this act from the “Muslim community.” Which is why so many of us have a generally bad attitude toward Islam in general. We’re all just a bit fed up with “the Religion of Peace.”
Or the silence could equal fear and submission, in which case if we kill off enough bullies they may be emboldened to speak out. Remember there was a hero in this story, she just unfortunately had no help.
MayBee:
You say “It would be horrendous for any woman to endure, and it (sic) demeaning to all women to suggest otherwise.”
Hala Jaber in her article says, re: baring parts of the victim’s body, that it’s “a humiliation for any woman”.
Maybe you read something into Ms. Jaber’s comment that isn’t really there. Where is she suggesting it’s not universally horrendous? How is what she “suggests” demeaning to all women?
If you insist on critiquing the author, why not call her out for commenting about women, instead of saying it’s “a humiliation for any PERSON, male or female” to have their private parts put on public display in a terrorist act?
I think there are people stepping out every day and not remaining silent – the ANA and the ANP, the IA and the IP…they are carrying a lot of the fight against these fantical, butchering, 8th Century wanna-bes. I think they count.
Maybee: It is another form of pathology altogether to read a story like this and mine it for feminist tripe. Even if you are a die hard pro Iraq liberation conservative, you are part of the problem here, whining Americans always looking for a multicultural, gender biased, some down trodden explanation.
Step aside then and let men handle this. That way you will never have to expose your breasts again!
I am now convinced that our efforts to reform and civilize the Middle East are doomed to failure. Any gentrifying or civilizing influence will quickly be swarmed under and silenced. Often, the people we hope to be such influences turn out to be just as rotten at heart (see Hamid Karzai).
The best we can hope for is to mitigate the damage, but I don’t know that we are ready to do what it will take to accomplish this.
Sorry W, it was a noble, if doomed, effort. Good on you for trying, though. It speaks to your belief in humanity. Sad that it turned out to be misguided.
I mean they sure make a lot of noise. But its that gobbledy-gook I don’t understand.
Quit being such a fifth column defeatist.
I take issue with that, actus. I would like very much for our efforts to be successfull, simply because I want to believe that all humans can be part of the human family. Further, I will support the efforts of our soldiers to the end. They are doing great work.
It’s just very difficult to keep believing when you see every kind gesture taken as an excuse to attack, and every time a “leader” gets the world’s ear, they sound off with homicidal lunacy that makes Hannibal Lecter look sane, to the accompaniment of cheering crowds.
It’s difficult to believe when the people you still want to believe in as human beings behave in ways consistant with the most animalistic monsters in history.
The only defeat I’m seeing is the defeat of the muslim world by its own monomania.
Can the process of civilization be done? Sure, it has been before. The question is what will it take, and do we have the will to do it?
I want victory, but I am a realist. Save your “fifth column” label for the ones actively agitating for our defeat.
Go read “heart of darkness” or something
We have a Godwin on the thread, on actus, improper application of racist label.
One, muslims are not a race. More like the Manson family writ large.
My hypothesis is that there is no evidence that civilizing influences are not working very well, and that the dynamics of the last 1400 years or so show little to no signs of changing.
Where am I wrong?
You are talking to actus, who has zero interest in rational discourse.
Well, who else will bear the white man’s burden?
Wow, a Godwin squared. Please enlighten me, where is it racist (IINAR) to believe that modernity is a better creed than drilling holes in someone and cutting their head off.
Or are you stating that it’s none of our business? If so, please be direct about it.
—
Should I stop feeding the troll?
Its a much better creed. And we can’t give up on it. But notice: it’s been a hundred years since we decided to civilize the south. And much blood and struggle later, southern strategies still work. The forces of reaction still thrive. Indeed:
The work to be done in the middle east is much greater. The forces of fundamentalism and reaction much more powerful. But we can’t give up on progressivism, on secular advancement of liberal values. Don’t despair in the face of thanklessness. No one else will bear our burden if we don’t.
Southern strategies? Do you mean southern, as in southern US?
It would seem to me that the passing of the Bull Connors, the George Wallaces, the Fritz Hollings, Democrats all, die-hard anti-integrationists in their day, has been achieved.
It would seem to me that trees no longer bear “strange fruit,” as the poem went.
It would seem to me that a black man able to serve on the Joint Staff, and subsequently as both National Security Advisor and Secretary of State is a pretty good step forward.
It would seem to me that a young black woman, from a city where four young black women died in a church bombing, becoming Secretary of State after serving as National Security Advisor is a step forward.
But, I guess for some, it’s still 1953. After all, black children aren’t allowed to choose where they can go to school—they must be kept away from vouchers.
Now, I grant you, there’s still a hood-wearer in the Senate, one who has yet to apologize and bear witness to the evil that he had done. (Although, in a Juan Cole-esque sort of way, perhaps one could interpret “the KKK is an albatross around your neck” as being tantamount to an apology, just as “wiped from the pages of history” isn’t really calling for the death of Joooosssss.) But time will tell, eventually.
Thats not southern strategy time. But you get the point: no matter how unpopular it makes you. No matter how politically you shoot yourself in teh foot. You have to work for liberal progressivism. In the south, in the middle east, and in the middle west.
And the forces of reaction will come and take their toll. But that’s part of the give and take.
And its not a reason to give up. Not because a reporter gets killed, or because some hicks string a guy up to their truck in chains. And certainly not because someone gets elected president while kicking off their presidential run talking about states rights in Philadelphia Mississippi.
Hang in there brother. Progress takes work.
Terry Ott- it was the words “but particularly so” that I take issue with. I do not think it is particularly humiliating for men to bare their breasts, although I do believe it would be humiliating for any man to have to bare his private parts, and had it been an article about how it was “particularly” humiliating for a muslim man to do so, I would have taken issue with it.
Much like I take issue with the idea that muslim men, because they are so devout, are being mistreated at Gitmo for being questioned by close-standing women.
It is about “otherness”, and I didn’t feel it had a place in the article about the gruesome murder.
Chris- Save your manly fight for another day. I will happily bare my breasts for whomever I choose.
This has to be the dumbest thing you’ve said in a while. This is evidence of somebody’s depravity, but whose kind of depends on who did it. Doesn’t it?!? If it was Zarqawi or other Sunni’s then yes stack it up as evidence of our enemies depravity. But if it was done by Badr Brigades guys or their colleagues in the ministry of the interior, or other militias attached to the current government of Iraq, that would make it evidence of our allies’ and clients’ depravity. So how does it not matter at all which side did it, when one of those side is ours?
Yeah, B Moe, that was interesting, but perhaps you miss my points (admirable in any battle save an intellectual one).
We now know that the video was a hoax, but we should continue on a discussion about what this video would somehow mean about an enemy if this video was actually the execution of a mixed-race journalist.
If the point of all this isn’t to show how dispicable the Islamic tendencies are, I don’t quite get how showing some persons doing some things can lead to a conclusion about a group of persons doing those same things.
So, a simple exercise: Define the group that this tape now proves are inhuman animals. JG himself says it’s not really that important to know who really did it. But to whom can we ascribe compicity?
And yes it was reported when it happened. When did you read about this atrocity on blogs? That was my question. But well done.
The question about Abu Ghraib was about pictures equalling coverage. Get it? s-l-o-w-e-r f-o-r c-o-r-v-a-n (one of your buddies) the question was not was this torture performed at Abu, but didn’t the coverage start only after pictures.
I actually thought it was a non-partisan issue worth exploring.
Thanks for showing me that today nothing is.
How’s that whole “running the American Government” going guys? You getting winded?
But keep up the good work fellas. Heck of a job.