Clashes

The murder of four American civilian contractors in Fallujah, and then the instant defilement of their corpses, is conspicuously barbarous. So is the maltreatment of hostages, and the threat to burn them alive. Barbarous but not surprising: People who have been brutalized as thoroughly as Iraqis commit brutalities as though that were normal. Context determines behavior. For as long as anyone can remember, Iraq has been in the hands of some thug whose will is the only law. No institutions of any kind have ever existed to mediate among interests. To protect themselves, people can only turn to those of their own kind. If some important interest is at stake, violence quickly rises through the levels of family, tribe, religious sect, and ethnicity. However outrageous, brutality is the way to get things done under absolute rule, a system of cruel and self-perpetuating custom.

At Fallujah, and in the cases of hostages, television cameras were ready to record what was happening. The brutality was evidently not the work of men whose passions had overwhelmed their human inhibitions. Quite the contrary, this is exemplary force, premeditated and staged by some in order to compel others to buckle under and do their bidding. These Sunnis of Fallujah and elsewhere are trying to make the simple point that they are ready to do whatever they have to do, no matter how violent, for the sake of advancing themselves and their interests.

About the Author

David Pryce-Jones

David Pryce-Jones (1936–2025) was a British author and commentator and served as a senior editor of National Review.

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The murder of four American civilian contractors in Fallujah, and then the instant defilement of their corpses, is conspicuously barbarous. So is the maltreatment of hostages, and the threat to burn them alive. Barbarous but not surprising: People who have been brutalized as thoroughly as Iraqis commit brutalities as though that were normal. Context determines behavior. For as long as anyone can remember, Iraq has been in the hands of some thug whose will is the only law. No institutions of any kind have ever existed to mediate among interests. To protect themselves, people can only turn to those of their own kind. If some important interest is at stake, violence quickly rises through the levels of family, tribe, religious sect, and ethnicity. However outrageous, brutality is the way to get things done under absolute rule, a system of cruel and self-perpetuating custom.

At Fallujah, and in the cases of hostages, television cameras were ready to record what was happening. The brutality was evidently not the work of men whose passions had overwhelmed their human inhibitions. Quite the contrary, this is exemplary force, premeditated and staged by some in order to compel others to buckle under and do their bidding. These Sunnis of Fallujah and elsewhere are trying to make the simple point that they are ready to do whatever they have to do, no matter how violent, for the sake of advancing themselves and their interests.