Daily Alert Archives

A Bit of Perspective, Please

(U.S. News) Mortimer B. Zuckerman - The Iraq prison photographs have been broadcast endlessly in Arab media and denounced from every minaret, but the reaction on the street has been mild - milder than in the U.S.! The photos offend Arab sensibilities, just as they offend ours. But in virtually every Muslim country, the people know that their prisons systematically practice real torture - and even murder - and that their autocratic leaderships visit barbarity on their own people as a matter of everyday routine. Arab media elites know full well what American values are, but they simulate rage because that's the prudent thing to do in autocracies that survive by focusing internal resentment on externals, like America, the West, and Israel.
2004-05-17 00:00:00
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