For gods’ sake sir!

We’re the Gods-be-damned good guys! We’re not supposed to torture anyone. The high moral standards we set is not “better than Saddam”, but “objectively good”...

Where is your outrage that these Liberated Iraqis were tortured in your name, in my name? Why do I come here to find you saying “well, we’re better than Saddam”? We are supposed to be better than “not as bad as Saddam”...

And one wonders just how many of those alleged torturees are even Iraqi, since so many of the terrorists in Iraq are not natives, but imported from other countries solely for the purpose of disrupting the process of democratization.

Andrew,
Of course I'm outraged. But every site I visited yesterday had already hit the outrage button hard. To do so also seemed redundent.

And I'm not excusing torture because Saddam was worse. I'm putting this incident into a context. A context that is absent in most accounts.

99.99% of our efforts are in the direction of ending a system where torture was a daily event, and encouraging the growth of a new system where it will hopefuly be rare. Our Marines in Falluja are risking their lives to kill Baathist scum (and Islamist scum) who would re-establish a regime of torture and murder in an instant if they could. THAT'S the context we should keep in mind.

It's the same with those who make a big deal about any civilian casualties we cause, without noting the context of a war to end Saddam's mass-murder, and save huge numbers of civilian lives.

Where we can really show the way American way in this unfortunate situation is in our justical process for disposing of "bad apples." We don't have to claim, necessarily, to have fewer bad apples than Iraq under Saddam, but that when we find them they are dealt with swiftly and certainly. Let Al Jezeera find another Arab country where a similar situation would be dealt with so quickly.

And by the way, where was their outrage over Saddam's mass graves?

Frank,
Am in full agreement with you.

Mr. Weidner,
I think the difference between you and I on this issue is the exact context into which we look at these issues. You look at them (if I understand your argument) as “how Iraq would be doing if we hadn’t kicked Saddam out” But this definition, we are doing well...

But I look at it as “how Americans should behave.” By this definition, we are doing fairly well, with a few instances of truly atrocious behavior...

And the instances of atrocious behavior on the part of Americans are either emphasized over the majority good behavior, or exaggerated so that the bad behavior seems even worse than it was. It's bad enough that our enemies do this -- our so called "allies" do it too, to make themselves look better; and our so-called spokespersons in the press seem to have set themselves up as gods over the behavior of those they report on, as if being a member of the press meant one weren't human too, and susceptible to the same morality-weakening forces as every other puny mortal.

Excuse me for my very bad English, for that reason i' m explain my opinion in Italian:
Vorrei vedere la gente che ora fa la parte del moralista vedere i propri commilitoni, amici e colleghi uccisi, martoriati ed esibiti come trofei per le strade, vorrei vederli avere tra le mani uno dei colpevoli, cosa fanno ? Gli chiedono: scusi, possiamo interrogarla ? Signori, siamo in guerra !! Il senso della vendetta esiste ed è normale, smettiamola con l' ipocrisia.

John asked me if I could translate the comment above. I am afraid it is decades since I studied Italian. However, here is a first go. I am sure others can do far better:

"I would like to see the people who now take the role of moralist to see their own [fellow-soldiers?], friends and colleagues killed, martyred and exhibited like trophies in the street. I would like to see them have one of the culprits fall into their hands. What do they do? They ask, excuse me, can we interrogate him?
Sirs, we are at war! The sense of vendetta exists and is normal. Let us stop the hypocrisy."

I should add that, so far as I know, in Italian as in English the sentiment "I'd like to see what they'd do" can express hypothetical or rhetorical interest rather than a literal desire to see the events described.

However, I must stress again that my Italian is very rusty.