Blood lust or ressurecting a post

ChiTom posted a piece entitled "Worth a thousand words?" yesterday that got buried beneath a bunch of other posts before some may have had a chance to see it. In it, ChiTom discusses how disturbing he finds some of the more lurid reports of Zarqawi's death. Since it may have gone unseen by some and since I too find some of the exhaltation at Zarqawi's death somewhat disturbing, I thought I'd put a link to this post at the top of the blog -- until one of us displaces it with something new.

The point here, I think, is not that any of us regret that Zarqawi has been stopped. His actions, or at least those attributed to him, are repugnant and fully justify the efforts to stop him, even if the only way of stopping him was to kill him. As ChiTom points out, what is troubling is the apparent blood lust of the mob that puts us on the same moral plane as Zarqawi himself.

It's all somewhat reminiscent of the cheering crowds that used to attend public executions, the gladiators' battles to the death to entertain the populace at the Roman coliseum, or the public lynchings of blacks in the deep South. The blood lust of the mob is just troubling, particularly when it is encouraged by those in positions of responsibility.

ChiTom's post is worth the read.