FROM AN IRAQ WAR ALUM

An email examines the objective dehumanization of “the enemy”:

I am a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and an increasingly liberal defector from the GOP, and like you I have been confused by the GOP’s simultaneous promotion of a ‘culture of life’ and of torture.
I was in Iraq in 03-04 and was really disheartened when Abu Ghraib broke in the media; I didn’t think the war was justified, ex ante, and the revelations of what was happening at the prison really made me feel like a Nazi. I employed a number of Iraqi laborers, and after the Arab media showed the photographs it was very difficult to look those guys in the eye.
As to balancing the seeming contradiction between torture and life, the only conclusion I can reach is that the pro-torture lobby has taken the rhetorical construction of ‘The Terrorists’ that was the centerpiece of administration pronouncements from 2001-2003 to its logical extreme – ‘They’ (that is, ‘The Terrorists’) are unworthy of life because ‘They’ don’t respect life. ‘They’ behead people, while all we do is beat them to death. ‘They’ hate us for ‘what we are,’ while we hate them for – well, I guess because of ‘what They are.’ But because we are a Benign Force, it’s different.
In class, I compared the construction of The Terrorists to the construction of Japanese identity during World War II, assigning the John Dower book, “War Without Mercy.” The enemy is so alien that he has abandoned any consideration as a human being. Consequently, exterminating him is appropriate.

Or torturing him for that matter. Wars are dangerous things. They corrupt us unless we remain vigilant. And one real worry is that because the president sincerely believes that his motives are good, he can find ways to dismiss or ignore or even condone things that are objectively wrong. This is especially a danger for those who believe their actions are sanctioned by their own God. If their motives are pure, they can do no wrong …

THE P.C. LEFT AND SCIENCE: Some readers have written in to say that John Derbyshire’s description of the editors of ScienceWeek as “intellectual Left-fascists” is overblown. I have to agree in this instance. There is a snooty liberal snobbism in the editorial, but it does not oppose unfettered research into the evolution of the human brain. Money quote:

There is certainly no reason to believe that the human brain has stopped evolving, and certainly brain size is a biological parameter that may indeed be changing, but we don’t think this work is of much particular anthropological significance. We would say the work needs to be done (and supported), but we are not at the point yet of making important conclusions from such studies.

There are, however, many on the left who object to any study of human genetic differences as inherently racist or sexist or bigoted. Science can be none of those things. Either the data exist and support conclusions, or they don’t. That, I think, is Derbyshire’s broader point, even if he’s off-base in this particular example.

A CATHOLIC DEMOCRAT

Tim Kaine seems to be leading the way:

Kaine defended himself against Kilgore’s attack on the subject by saying that it is his beliefs as a deeply religious Catholic that lead him to oppose the death penalty and abortion. But he also said he would follow the law on capital punishment and advocate laws that protect the right to abortion.
“The elite never really got that argument,” said David Eichenbaum, one of Kaine’s media advisers, referring to columnists and others who wondered how Kaine could be, in his words, “morally” opposed and yet pledge not to try to change the law. “But people who heard him got it.”

And Benedict XVI wants him denied communion.

THE ELECTIONS

I’m leery of seeing a national trend, but the GOP certainly has little to celebrate today. The Schwarzenegger losses are the most dispiriting to me. Texas’s enshrinement of anti-gay prejudice in its own constitution is depressing but hardly surprising (they’re still proudly naming their towns “white”). The vote in Maine, moreover, confirms the federalist approach to gay issues. Let tolerant states compete with intolerant ones – and lead the way toward a more inclusive America. One thing I would say to my Democratic friends: if you think merely opposing Bush will win you back the Congress next year, dream on. Or, better still, read on. You need constructive ideas, not more Kossian rants.

BLAIR REBUFFED

Terror suspects in Britain can now be detained without charge for 28 days, not the 90 days as proposed by Blair (and the 14 days required previously). The country that invented habeas corpus keeps a sane balance between security and freedom. I wish it were true in the U.S. Politically, the Commons vote is a stinging rebuff for Blair. I give him twelve more months in power at this rate, before his own party cashiers him.

CONSERVATISM AND SCIENCE

I agree with John Derbyshire that science is being attacked by an unholy alliance between the religious right and the p.c. left. I think he under-estimates the danger from the right, but his broader point is correct. The deeper reality is that the religious right and p.c. left are merely two sides of the same coin: both have contempt for truly liberal education. They both put their own notions of virtue above the principle of unfettered thinking and research. Both require resisting, just as the fundamentalist distortions of Islam and Christianity deserve resisting.