Some deaths matter more

Birmingham News:

All of the deaths in Iraq - soldiers, journalists, private contractors, aid workers and Iraqi citizens - matter deeply to their families and friends.

They matter to the American public, as well. But some deaths matter even more: for example, the killings and mutilations of four security contractors in Fallujah, or the grisly beheading of American businessman Nicholas Berg, captured on video.

So it is with the deaths announced Tuesday of two soldiers captured by insurgents during an ambush south of Baghdad the week before. The two soldiers were Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore. A third soldier, Spc. David J. Babineau, 25, of Springfield, Mass., was killed when the three were attacked at a traffic checkpoint.

Military officials' comments about the gruesome condition of the bodies of Menchaca and Tucker induce shudders. The men had been "brutally tortured." They suffered "severe trauma" that prevented the bodies from being positively identified. "The torture was something unnatural." The officials offered no details.

These deaths, perhaps because the brutality of their killers defies all norms of civilized society, or because the victims suffered unspeakably, resonate more deeply with Americans. We are even more disgusted, more outraged and - bad news for the terrorists and insurgents in Iraq - our resolve is strengthened.

The killings and mutilation of Menchaca and Tucker may have been an attempt by al-Qaida in Iraq to show it still is a force to be reckoned with after the June 7 death of its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but several analysts say the terrorist group - if, in fact, al-Qaida was responsible - failed.

"The brevity of their captivity, and the absence of videos of (the soldiers) pleading for their lives, suggested that their captors had little confidence in their ability to keep them in captivity for any extended period of time," John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org in Washington, D.C., told the San Francisco Chronicle.

...

It is what this enemy would do to every American if he had the opportunity. What the Demcorats have been proposing will allow the enemy to survive to perpetrate more attrocities. It will encourage them in their war effort. They could not be more wrong in their attitude about the war in Iraq.