Unfortunately, since I didn't post earlier this week, I didn't get a chance to express my outrage and horror at the deaths of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, Texas and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Oregon, the two soldiers whose bodies were found earlier this week. Horrible as the circumstances were, though, the mere loss of a loved one in Iraq (16 in the last week alone) has to be bad enough for the parents, children, other relatives and friends left behind that it can't get much worse.
In response to those on the right who have been calling for "revenge," a desire for vengeance may be a satisfying personal feeling and is certainly understandable, especially in those who, unlike Rush Limbaugh et al., knew and loved the deceased, but it has no place in policy decisions. I remember hearing the late Simon Wiesenthal speak several years ago, and after all this time I can still hear him, a man who lost his entire family and several years of his youth at the hands of the Nazis, insisting that justice, not vengeance, was what was needed, while also acknowledging the impossibility of meting out a proportionate justice to those whose victims numbered in the hundreds, thousands, or millions.
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