John O'Sullivan : Modern Evil Demands Medieval Response

The Chicago Sun-Times ^ | September 28, 2004 | John O'Sullivan

[quidnunc]

My back was turned when, to my surprise, I heard my mother's voice on the evening news. I promptly assumed I must have been mistaken: Why would the evening news interview a 92-year-old retired lady from a Liverpool suburb? Of course, my assumption was correct: The network was interviewing an 86-year-old retired lady from a Liverpool suburb — the widowed mother of Ken Bigley, the British hostage in Iraq.

She was pleading for her son's life.

Ken Bigley is one of more than 100 foreigners who have been taken hostage in Iraq since April. They include Turks, Canadians, Egyptians, Brits and, of course, Americans. Some are truck drivers. Most are civilians — aid workers, civilian contractors — of both sexes and of different religions, including Muslims. Nor is nationality a safeguard: Two French journalists are held by terrorists, and French news organizations are pulling their reporters out, despite President Chirac's strong opposition to the Iraq war.

At the last count, 30 such hostages had been murdered — two Americans last week — sometimes by the medieval method of beheading. It must be terrible to die alone, far from home, at the hands of brutal bigots, and suffering perhaps minutes of agony before consciousness fails. Yet we know of no one acting cravenly or seeking to join his captors. And at least one hostage behaved with exemplary heroism, trying to tear off his mask and defying the terrorists with the words: "Let me show you how an Italian dies."

-snip-

[Redbob]

"Two French journalists are held by terrorists, and French news organizations are pulling their reporters out, despite President Chirac's strong opposition to the Iraq war."

What is the French for,
"Hey, don't hurt us - we hate the Americans too!"???

[Redbob]

I disagree:

I'd say that modern evil merits a thoroughly modern response, one that would leave that part of the world uninhabitable for a thousand years...

[Congressman Billybob]

Very fine article. And I appreciate its coining of a new word, "overcivilized." I hope that word, and the concept it stands for, will leak into the MSM. It will add a desperately needed perspective.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column, "Kerry Hasn't Read a History Book"

If you haven't already joined the anti-CFR effort, please click here.

[Thebaddog]

I keep thinking about our military kids over there working under the certainty that if they are captured, they are certainly dead after torture. I think that there are about four soldiers taken that we knew of and their whereabouts aren't spoken of.

[igor1]

What is the French for,
"Hey, don't hurt us - we hate the Americans too!"???

Hey, ne nous blessez pas - nous détestons les Américains aussi!

[Clemenza]

"Time to get Medievel on their a-s!"