History will not look kindly....

....upon those who stood by and did nothing while Iraqis were executed in the street.

In the 1930s, men volunteered for units like the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in order to fight Fascism in Spain. Today, their tenured sons and daughters sit in comfortable academic seminars where they denounce the "empire" and its nefarious designs on the planet. (See my "The Empire and Laurie Brand" in the archives.) Or they create websites like "Iraq Body Count," which tallies the number of civilian deaths--without, however, discriminating between those killed by U.S. troops, fascist paramilitaries, disease, crime or tribal disputes. Judging by its home page image of a Stealth Bomber dropping its payload, every death is America's fault.

At least Iraq Body Count is acknowledging and registering the dead; the rest of the world just turns away.

Turns away indeed. In fact, the terrorists are in no small part encouraged by the lack of action of the rest of the world. Imagine what Iraq would be like today if the Arab nations were condemning the terrorist attacks and backing up their words with troops to defend Iraq's borders from infiltrators. Or Europe. Or NATO. But they can't be bothered with the Iraqis (or the Sudanese or the Congolese or the Rwandans or any other dark skinned people for that matter.)

It's a strange world where tyranny, oppression and murder are favored over freedom. Strange world indeed.