WELL. . .

Between Jonah Goldberg's tongue-lashing for CBS's sources for providing the Abu Ghraib photos and and his criticism of CBS for airing them, and Powerline's argument that the photographs don't depict "torture" and that if the people being humiliated in the photos "were terrorists, they got off easy," I'm beginning to feel a bit queasy. May need to unhook myself from the web for a while.

Goldberg tries to save his argument with a factually-challenged comparison to press reactions to the slaughter of Belgian peacekeepers in Rwanda (contra Goldberg, the deaths were reported quite clearly by the major networks in early April, 1994 -- just do a Lexis search). And Powerline tries to save its argument with a reference to arab press reactions to Palestinian terrorism.

Oh well.

Man! Whole swaths of our current political discourse appear to be thoroughly corrupt.

American troops should not engage in torture. Any allegations of torture should be thoroughly investigated and should be the cause for deep national shame. Press reporting of these allegations is appropriate and necessary to keep pressure on the perpetrators and their superiors. Full stop.

How hard is that, really?

MORE (5/7): Goldberg updates the claim today here, but I have been unable to verify the story about news organizations suppressing the details of the Belgians' deaths. Any help on sourcing would be appreciated. In Goldberg's defense, the stories about the extent of the mutilation -- at least the ones available on line -- appear in interviews with Dallaire or in connection with coverage of the official government reports on the massacres. Both kinds of stories appear in the late 1990s.