Hussein's underwear....

A nice little piece on the outrage at the pictures of Saddam Hussein in his underwear.

A British tabloid -- The Sun -- has published pictures of genocidal maniac Saddam Hussein in his underwear and the progressives around the world are aghast! Mind you, the reaction on the Arab street isn't outrage. In fact, many in Kuwait, Iran and Iraq think that humiliation and embarrassment are quite appropriate for the "Butcher of Baghdad." Those who are affected by the "outrage" are all about the perception. Political correctness -- this time hiding behind the Geneva Conventions -- exposes its absurdity once again.

The Sun and its Saddam Hussein pictureGranted, the use -- in this case The Sun's publication -- of photographs defaming prisoners of war is against the Geneva Conventions. The Conventions state that countries must protect prisoners of war in their custody from "public curiosity". This stipulation is in place for a good many reasons. It, and the Geneva Conventions in total, were written to adhere to a core belief in honor despite the barbarity of war.

Today's War on Terror is a different animal. It pits an organized group of traditional military forces against a rag-tag group of fanatical ideologues who adopt the dress of and hide among civilians. Those who are fighting to end a terrorist movement that murders indiscriminately -- and those regimes that sponsor and harbor them -- are battling clandestine forces that exploit the chilling effects of fear as they murder, rape, pillage and plunder in the name of a religion whose motives are in question, especially for their proselytization of violence toward non-believers.

So, when I hear that the International Committee for the Red Cross is aghast at the publication of pictures of Saddam Hussein in his underwear, when I hear that they want an investigation into how this "atrocity," this injustice, could have been allowed to occur, it makes me shake my head in disbelief. It also leads me to believe that an investigation should be launched into the motives of all those who have been abusing the word "atrocity."