Jay Manifold has left the blogroll. He thinks it was excusable for US troops to position two dead Taliban facing Mecca and burn their bodies, then taunt onlookers:
Desecration
Jay Manifold
TIME dutifully reports that:… as one Kabul cleric Mohammed Omar told newsmen, “The burning of these bodies is an offense against Muslims everywhere. Bodies are burned only in Hell.”
I know just what he has in mind. <----------- (WARNING: Twin Towers 9/11 image!)
October 22, 2005 11:31 AM
(Warning added by me.) I don’t remember, and can’t be bothered looking up, whether Manifold had anything to say when the bodies of US contractors were desecrated in Falluja. If he did, I bet it wasn’t self-righteous and approving.
Update: Jeanne has links to a transcript of the original broadcast and an interview with the photographer.
I do not approve of desecration, period. My comment was intended to point out the hypocrisy inherent in the show of upset over two burnt bodies in the context of the war. The line from Apocalypse Now about handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500 comes to mind.
You are correct that I had nothing to say about the murders of the contractors at Fallujah. They were no more outrageous than any other terrorist activity and were distinguishable only in that the victims had some notion of the danger they were in beforehand.
You will remain blogrolled at Arcturus. I like being mentioned, and there aren’t enough science bloggers out there as it is.