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May 09, 2004
MODESTY ASIDE
It is gratifying to see that the foreign editor of The New York Times, whose international reporting we long admired, agrees with us.
May 3: "The mission [in Iraq] is not only not accomplished. It has, with the latest revelations turned into a moral defeat so shattering that the political and military nightmare (still brewing, with worse to come) may one day seem to have been pre-ordained." -- "Bad to Worse," Straight Up
May 6: "This is not My Lai. This is not the war in Vietnam. This is different. But the lessons are the same. Will they ever be learned?" -- "Donkey Tale," Straight Up
May 9: "A military defeat is a damaging thing, and Iraq remains a tense battleground. But a moral one may be more devastating and more enduring for a power like the United States that has long held that its actions are driven, at least in part, by the desire to be a force for good with a liberating mission for all humanity. ...
"Abu Ghraib is not My Lai. Nothing like the infamous massacre of Vietnamese civilians took place in the Iraqi prison. But it is assuming something of the mantle of that tragedy -- a vivid stain on America's conscience. How the United States can recover the moral authority with which much of the world still yearns to vest it will depend on its choices over the next few weeks. The battle for Iraq now begins again, for the third time, and on tougher terms than ever." -- Roger Cohen, "They've Apologized. Now What?" Week in Review
More essential reading: This week's latest from Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker, "Chain of Command," and last week's latest from Cynthia Ozick in The New York Observer, "The Modern 'Hep! Hep! Hep!'"
Posted by at May 9, 2004 09:47 AM
