Abu Ghraib

The Wall Street Journal's Editorial Board writes ($) "the political class would do well to heed Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, who said yesterday that 'This immoral behavior [of the soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison] in no way eliminates the justice of our cause in Iraq.'"

Despite assertions to the contrary by the ilk that is documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, the ends the Bush Administration seeks to achieve in Iraq have been just -- the elimination of the Hussein regime, democratic government, preservation of human rights. The trouble is the means we've used to achieve such ends has not always been just; because war has its casualties and at times is indiscriminate. Let's not forget September 11, where every single person killed that day was innocent. This war was brought to our shores, we're bringing it back to theirs. They chose the time and place, we didn't.

Bush is correct to condemn Rumsfeld for not clueing him in on just what happened in the Abu Ghraib prison. But to lose heart over our cause in Iraq because of abuses committed by white trash is tantamount to letting one's brain be so open as to let it fall out.

UPDATE: I just learned my friend, Professor Donna Hughes of The University of Rhode Island, has an article in National Review Online about the Abu Ghraib prison images, comparing them to pornography and images made by traffickers. A must read.