Asymmetrical Standards

The Belmonst Club has an interesting post (via Instapundit) on the ability of our enemies in Iraq to commit the most heinous act and not get any grief for it in our media.

This is most easily noticed by the contrast between the Marine who shot a wounded enemy in Fallujah in an environment where wounded enemy soldiers still tried to kill Americans; and the attack on the medical personnel rendering assistance to the wounded after the Mosul attack.

Guess which one the media condemned as a war crime and which one was a sign of increased enemy sophistication?

But of course, you don't need to guess. The main problem is that our press as a whole either doesn't recognize that we have an enemy or has decided that the American military is the enemy.

When Iraq has its elections and exercises sovereignty fully, the Iraqi government will likely take off the gloves and go after the enemy with a brutality that we cannot bring to the fight. Will the press be impressed with the increased sophistication of the Iraqi government when its forces start nailing Baathists in the middle of the night in large numbers to instill fear in the insurgents?

The Baathists and their Islamist chums have made this an ugly war. But they will rue the day that they made the majority of Iraqis angry enough to fight brutality with their own. I think the Sunnis are in for a world of hurt if they don't shape up fast. The Sunnis at least have a chance to join the new Iraq. The foreign Islamists are dead men walking. There will be no quarter granted to these killers.