>But I was surprised by the "shock and dismay." as I wrote to PenL:
>
>I would have expected the "if you want to make an omlet, you've got
>to break some eggs" routine. But no. So, one thing that it brings
>to mind is the Puritans/bearbaiting joke; that being that the
>Puritans weren't opposed to bearbaiting because the bears suffered
>but because the audience was enjoying itself too much. I wonder, if
>the pictures had shown hatchet-faced guards overseeing the
>humiliation/torture, whether the reaction would have been less
>"dismayed."
Why not concede Chomsky's argument, that the U.S. is "incomparably more civilized" than it was 40 years ago? Only the right-wing nuts are defending this - even the gang on CNBC warming up for the jobs report this morning looked uncomfortable. Why hasn't the U.S. flattened Fallujah and Najaf already? Could it be partly for fear of public revulsion, and the need to keep up an appearance of sparing civilian life?
Doug