Help me write a letter to the editor

[JohnLocke]

Complete moron wrote in to my paper. Help me draft out an antidote to this idiocy:

Get outraged about Berg, not about prisoner abuse
Why do Americans seem to care more about Iraqi prisoner abuse than the horrific murder of an innocent American that was broadcast over the Internet? I have a lack of sympathy for Iraqi prisoners just because they were forced to pose nude for a camera. At least they eventually will be released, if they haven't been already.
What of Nicholas Berg, the victim of a videotaped decapitation? Why are there not more cries of outrage and demands for the capture of his murderers? There is something wrong with this picture.
(Name)
(Place)

Here's what I have so far:

The May 23rd letter "Get outraged about Berg, not prisoner abuse" reflects another side effect of war: using one atrocity to justify another.

Any suggestions about how I can finish my LTTE?

[HFishbine]

1. You could

tell him about democraticunderground.com. Suggest that maybe he needs to expand his news sources. There was plenty of outrage here, as there usually is on this progressive site towards the senseless taking of human life.

[rustydog]

2. Try this:

America, via George Bush went to war in Iraq due to the massive amounts of WMD's. When it became evident Bush lied through his teeth, the revisionist reason was because Saddam tortured and murdered Iraqis. Remember, Saddam's sons had RAPE ROOMS!

We cannot take the moral high ground when we rape, torture and MURDER INNOCENT Iraqis.
60 to 90% of the over 45000 "detainees" (prisoners of war) at Abu Ghraib are plain innocent civilians who are later released after being anally raped by their "liberators".

Wrong is wrong, no matter who commits the atrocity.

[greenbriar]

7. this is the best reply

and its the nail on the head.

[JohnLocke]

3. Kick (nt).

[SOteric]

4. I think an important point of the issue is

that it's always been easy and convenient to look at atrocity as something that is perpetrated by others and not by Americans in American causes. The abuse of prisoners is an affront to our self-concept as a nation. It's hard to look objectively at such behaviour and tell ourselves we're the 'liberators,' we're the 'good guys.' And it ought to be difficult.

We have, as a nation, brought Democracy and fair voting practices to many Third World nations and done it with our heads up and our confidence high, -until the elections of 2000 when the flaws in our system and the allegations of outright fraud were so glaring as to make it impossible to sweep under the rug. The world saw our dirty laundry and we were ashamed.

It will be harder still to hold our heads high and call Saddam Hussein an evil dictator who abused and tormented those who opposed him, we have no right to the moral high ground we might hope to seize.

The beheading of Mr. Berg was grisly and inhumane and has traumatised us as a nation.

In the acknowledgement that we've borne in our midst, nurtured as our own and given opportunity to sweet-faces of evil in the persons of American solidiers is a matter not of vengeance, not of grisly trauma, - though that is there too. We are ashamed. Every man and woman of conscience in America is ashamed, and rightly so.

It makes greater the sin that we ask other soldiers, most men and women of honour, to risk their lives in a war over which there are too many questions and there is far too much shame.

[JohnLocke]

5. kick

[sandnsea]

6. What are we fighting?

We're fighting terrorists who commit atrocities like beheadings, we all know what they're capable of. WE are not terrorists and if we become terrorists, then what's the point of it all? Besides, the entire point of signing on to the Geneva Conventions is to protect OUR troops. We have lost all moral highground in the event our troops are captured and that will come back to haunt us for years to come.

(Sometimes it's better to talk to the mainstream in language they understand.)