This is the predator's boast: 'I got me one!'

This is the predator's boast: 'I got me one!'

James Thompson
Friday May 21, 2004
The Guardian

It is no longer part of our experience to see dead bodies. In the wealthy world we are unlikely to come across them lying in the street. Even the tradition of viewing dead relatives has given way to the observation of closed coffins which, often as not, are cremated out of sight.

So, the photographs of American soldiers, grinning and giving the thumbs up sign over a dead Iraqi, come as a double shock: the shock of death and the shock of disrespect for the dead.

What moves anyone to behave in this way? The perpetrators will have had to overcome some fear at this reminder of their own mortality.

Even medical students in a mortuary, steeled to learn their craft, are spared the shock of starting dissections on the face or hands, since these are like blowing on the dead body's embers and starting the live flame of the person.

more.....................

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1221579,00.html