We must take into account, particularly in the wake of the Iraqi prisoner scandal, how dehumanized people become by the violence and injustices of having a war waged on them.

I'm not saying they can't help it. I am saying that war dehumanizes everyone it touches, and a large part of the problem with American-led warfare, is that it never directly touches us. And just look at what we became in the wake of 9/11, when the violence did directly touch us: what we are now. A society with curtailed civil liberties, our government spying on all of us, and aggressive, monstrous bullies to the rest of the world, whom our government and too many of our citizens hold in contempt.

We are isolated, mean, angry, and bitter, and we are taking it out on the world, innocent or guilty.

That isn't a very admirable place for the richest, most powerful democratic society the world has ever known, now is it?