The old question – do we, as bloggers, play into the hands of terrorists by referring to their horrific sites in which they celebrate their barbaric blood-fest, and by doing so dishonor our fallen soldiers?

I say we do*. I say we go and we see, carefully, mindfully. I say we go and we see and while we are looking, we think to ourselves: How do I feel looking at this? Am I shocked? Am I horrified? Am I sick? And on the other hand, how did I feel looking at the photos of American soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners? Also shocked? Also horrified? Angry? Ashamed?

So where is the Palestinian shame at such pictures? Where is the Arab horror? No, they rejoice! They revel! They are proud of their barbarism. President Arafat has to pressure them to shelve the worst of the footage, not out of humanity, but out of cold calculation, so as to minimize the harm to their image as poor little victims.

How angry they were at pictures of Iraqis being degraded (degraded, not murdered) by Americans! How indignant! And maybe rightly so.

But Americans being slaughtered on camera? Israeli body parts being kicked around the streets? Why, that’s the best show in town! Show it again, Ahmed, show it again! What fun!

I say we go and we see, so that we know exactly who we are up against.

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* By the way, I am totally opposed to having these photos published in newspapers or aired unedited on TV, but those clicking through from here to the Islamic Jihad link I gave, having read what I wrote, knew exactly where they were going and what they were going to see.