Posted by Dan Ewert : 4/16/2003 11:38:00 PM (Archive Link)
The big news as of late was the looting occurring in Baghdad. It was all over the networks and liberal pundits came out of the corners in which they had been sulking to criticize the military for it. They decried how we had liberated them so they could steal. These are many of the same people who have been longtime apologists for the L.A. riots following the verdicts in the Rodney King trial. In those riots, the claim is that the looters animosity and theft was understandable because it was a release for the years of horrible oppression at the hands of civil law enforcement. Now, though, crowds of people who really have been brutally oppressed, e.g. kidnapping, torture, murder, hostage-taking, for years suddenly have an all-out ransacking of the government buildings where the oppressors operated and it’s so very bad of them. Worse, it’s our fault for letting it happen. It’s wrong, yes, but somehow you have to think that a man who had both his sons executed by Hussein’s thugs deserves an office chair. And while the looting did hit some private entities, it was mostly isolated to government buildings. This is in contrast to L.A. where pawn shops and electronic stores seemed to suddenly represent the Man and became legitimate targets. So apologize for both or condemn both. But if you want to do a little bit of apologizing and condemning, at least look to see who has the better grievances.