Free Republic

SNIPPET: "Some of the bravest and most distinguished analysts from the Middle East emphasize that region's culture of cruelty." SNIPPET: "That cruelty, usually at a remove from outsiders, became cinematically vivid on April 22, 2009, when ABC News aired a tape of a prince from the United Arab Emirates sadistically torturing an Afghan merchant he accused of dishonesty. No less instructive were the passive reactions of his government and of American officials. The story reveals much and is worth pondering:"

Torture in Tehran May 20, 2006 National Review Online Michael Ledeen I am sorry to have to post this, a video of the leader of Tehran's bus drivers' organization (it is forbidden to call it a union) after a torture session in an Iranian prison. But it seems otherwise impossible to convince Western leaders that we are confronting a monstrous evil, that seeks to destroy or dominate us by all possible means. The sort of horror you see on this video is repeated every day, sometimes leading to execution, sometimes to further sadism. Secretary Rice: do you really believe...

When I talk about some of the things that bother me a lot about Iraq, like the gouging out of eyes, the branding of the Arabic word for "whore" on young women's foreheads, the beheading of other women in public, things like that, a few of my American friends who opposed the war often get quite angry - at me, not at the torturers and executioners. They tell me such things happened when Saddam Hussein was in power, until March. So shouldn't foreigners just shut up or stop putting out reports like the one about the 30-year-old man whose ears...