Long has the Sword Been Red

In 1396, a combined army of French Crusaders and Hungarians went to war to stop the Ottoman Turks from engulfing the Byzantine Empire. The French refused to co-ordinate their efforts with those of Sigismund of Hungary and ran into a trap. The Hungarians might still have won the day had not Serbian allies of the Turks ambushed them. The Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I, furious at his army's heavy casualties, orders the prisoners put to the sword.


When I think on the savagery at Abu Grhaib, this is what comes to mind: how easy it is to abuse those you have power over, those who have angered you. It matters not what uniform deals out the abuse, it is the same impulse, the same loss of moral control. It should always be condemned. It pleases me that we are.




Update: It gets worse. Skeptical appears to have been right, according to this: abuse of the prisoners was widespread throughout the prison. What a depressing predicament. But so be it. Let the news come out now, and let the guilty be punished before the eyes of the world.


And then let's blow that damn prison up.