EMAIL OF THE DAY

“It was interesting to hear about the jump in hits on blogger web-sites. Let me suggest that it is due not so much to the Nick Berg video, but to the combination, or sequence, of the Abu Ghraib photos AND the Nick Berg video. For me, the Abu Ghraib photos acted as slate clearer. Like you, after I first saw those photos I fell into a deep funk where I started to question everything that had made me a staunch supporter of the war. While in this funk I realized that much of my rationale for going to war was underpinned by an unformed, yet felt assumption that it would go well. Those photos yanked that all away. So then what happened? Into this void gets poured the images of an innocent civilian being savagely beheaded. Now unencumbered by unspoken assumptions that this would be easy, I see the true nature of what we are up against, and am more committed to winning this thing than ever before. I wonder if many in the blogosphere are experiencing the same phenomenon.” The guy’s right; and count me among those in this emotional whiplash. I feel more committed this week to getting this liberation right than I have for months. That doesn’t mean I think we shouldn’t prosecute the perpetrators of the Abu Ghraib abuses as forcefully as we can. It merely means I feel emboldened to carry on, thanks to the reminder of Zarqawi.