Mercy for Saddam's Victims

Today's Washington Times carries the extraordinary story of seven Iraqi men who, as scapegoats for Saddam's failing regime after the first Gulf War, suffered the surgical removal of their right hands to "show what happens to those who undermine our economy." The amputations were performed by physicians who had the procedures photographed in order to further ingratiate themselves with the dictator.

The seven are now in Houston, where, gratis, they're getting $50,000 state-of-the-art bionic hands and physical therapy. On May 29 they'll travel to Washington, D.C., and the reporter says they've been treated like martyrs or heroes everywhere they've gone around Houston.

All of this has occurred because private Americans, from television producers to M.D.s to the manufacturer of the bionic hands, have donated their time, money, and talent to help repair what was done to them by a regime that was as brutal as any in history. That they were the victims of Iraqi doctors who so grossly violated their oaths to please a tyrant reminds one of Dr. Josef Mengele's actions against imprisoned Jews during WWII. It's also a reminder that evil exists in our world, pace our therapeutic culture that prefers to bury that word along with the victims of those who are evil themselves.

According to the Times, "All the Iraqi amputees strongly support the U.S.-led coalition's war to oust Saddam's regime and hope peace and prosperity will return to their homeland." Says one of the Iraqis: "Only thing I wonder . . . is why the Americans didn't come in 1993. They could have walked in and taken Baghdad with 100 men. We've been waiting all these years."