Is the Western World culturally superior to the Islamic World? I recently posed that question to some friends of mine, and the answer was a resounding "YES!"
I however was not so sure. Most of the criticism directed towards Muslims is their unflinching brutality: beheadings, rapes, and forced conversions of their ideological foes. And you will hear no protestations from me as to whether such methods are at their core evil.
But civilized life is in many ways a race to the bottom, and our own brutality over the past half century has more often than not been comparable to that of our enemies.
In particular, I must bring the world's attention to the actions of our Air Force. Thermobaric bombs were our weapon of choice in Afghanistan. For those of you who are ignorant of how they work, they use 100% incendiary fuel, relying on atmospheric concentrations of Oxygen alone for detonation.
In other words, thermobaric weapons suck the air out of their hapless victims' lungs, and then use it to set them on fire, leaving behind only charred, unrecognizable remains. So you either suffocate to death, or you are burned alive. Either way, your demise is excruciatingly painful.
We used such weapons against many terrorist camps in Afghanistan. But we also used them indiscriminately against civilians. Entire villages of men, women and children were incinerated, leaving no survivors. And no one really cared, either at home or abroad.
In addition to Fuel-Air bombs, in the War on Terrorism we have also used White Phosphorus, Cluster Bombs, Bunker Busters, Depleted Uranium, and many other nefarious munitions, all of which brought Total War to anyone who dared to defy us. We even considered the use of Tactical Thermonuclear Weapons, which we would have deployed if the consequent nuclear fallout had not put our own allies in the region at risk.
So as far as I can tell, the difference between our enemies and ourselves is not in the degree of brutality either one of us have used, but rather, in the levels of abstraction that morally insulate some soldiers from the realities of their destructiveness. If you push a button, thereby murdering innocent people half a world away, it's easier to sleep at night, whereas if you were to instead murder them each with your own bare hands, you would feel a great deal more remorse.
However, while the difference between the two may be something that mortals can recognize and understand, I find it difficult to believe that the powers of righteousness who rule over us all draw any such distinctions. To them, dead women and children were just as loved while alive, are just as missed by those they leave behind, and will be just as vociferously avenged by those tasked with their defense.
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