# Posted 10:23 PM by Ariel David Adesnik  

HORROR AND SILENCE: The savage brutality of yesterday's murders in Fallujah has shocked the blogosphere into silence. How often does an event of this magnitude provoke only a few lines of commentary from some of the most prolific authors on the web? On the other hand, are there any words that can say as much as the images of joyous young men hacking away at a charred American corpse?

Perhaps it will become possible to think about yesterday's slaughter once the numb and shock begin to wear off. Already, Phil Carter has begun to reflect and the murders. He writes that

News of this attack, and the Iraqi mob's behavior, has likely reached every American and coalition soldier now serving in Iraq. Just as the news of the Malmedy massacre during WWII enraged U.S. troops and gave them a reason to fight harder, so too will this event.

But what about the effect of this brutality on the homefront audience at which it was directed? As one might expect, the public mutilation of American bodies has begun to evoke remembrances of Mogadishu. This time, however, there is no thought of surrending to brutality and abandoning our mission.

But what is it that we must do to overcome the bestial rage now on display? Should the United States, as Glenn Reynolds suggests, withhold from Fallujah the benefits of reconstruction? Or is it now more important than ever to demonstrate our goodwill and, as the Marines' motto says, "Do No Harm"?

Before answering those questions, I think we must first ask who committed yesterday's atrocities in Iraq? The banner headline of today's Boston Globe read "Brutality, Cheers In Iraq". The lead story in USA Today was entitled "Iraqis revel in US deaths".

Both headlines have the unfortunate effect of implying that the entire nation of Iraq was celebrating the brutal slaughter of American civilians. While those who follow the news will recognize that the people of Fallujah are hardly representative of the people of Iraq, I am concerned that the overwhelming majority of Americans will believe that Iraqi sentiment toward the United States approximates Palestinian sentiment toward Israel.

Yet even in Fallujah, that is not the case. According to one resident quoted in the NYT,

"This is a bad advertisement for everything we stand for," said Muhammad Khalifa, a spare parts trader who closed his shop during the disturbance in a sign of disgust. "We may hate Americans. We may hate them with all our hearts. But all men are creatures of God."

In the morning, a team of American officials rushed to a meeting with Falluja's mayor and top clerics. American officials said the clerics promised to issue a fatwa, or religious edict, at Friday Prayer to condemn the ambush and the grisly aftermath. One of the gravest sins in Islam is desecrating the dead...

Mazem Hazem, a 20-year-old engineering student, said killing the Americans was acceptable but what was done to their bodies was not.

"I am satisfied that we killed them ? they are Americans and they are foreigners on our land," Mr. Hazem said.

"But I don't agree with what they did with their bodies. It is haram," he said, using the Arabic word for forbidden. "It is an embarrassment. And people will remember Falluja for this for many years."

If that is the reaction of those who support the insurgents, I suspect that those who oppose their struggle will feel even more strongly that the desecration of American corpses was an outrage. For the moment, the Iraqi media isn't preoccupied with what happened in Fallujah. Perhaps the people of Iraq have more pressing concerns. Or perhaps they are not in the least surprised that those who once supported Saddam have no qualms about emulating his brutality.

To the New York Times' credit, it carefully phrased today's headline to avoid any implication that the people of Iraq as a whole were responsible for yesterday's atrocities. Its headline read "4 From US Killed In Ambush in Iraq; Mob Drags Bodies." Perhaps if all of us exercise such care in describing the atrocities, the broader public will begin to recognize that they were the work of a small number of degenerate fascists who represent Iraq's past, but not its future. (0) opinions -- Add your opinion