I am Shocked, Shocked

AP is scraping the bottom of the barrel today: "unidentified source claims a man looking like wounded al-Zarqawi was beaten by American troops". Oops sorry, apparently he was "pulled out of the ambulance and beaten". CBS is right on top of this unsubstantiated claim: "U.S. troops arriving on the scene wrapped the man's head in an Arab robe and began beating him."

I am shocked, shocked, at the possibility of this gross misconduct. Having dropped two 500 lb bombs in order to eliminate the terrorists in the first place, they really should have dropped to their knees and given the man immediate mouth to mouth resuscitation. In fact isn't killing a terrorist against the Geneva convention? Well if not, surely we can dig up some other agreement which this brutal act would contravene. Despite the setbacks "Democrats Vow to Fight On After Zarqawi Loss."

CNN was reporting the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, had been "betrayed". Betrayed? Are these people completely crazy?

At this and other points in the press conference, Gen. Caldwell had the look, I thought, of a normal person who wonders whether he has been transported into a world of lunatics. It seemed that some of the reporters, at least, thought they were on to another "scandal"--Zarqawi murdered by U.S. troops! In cold blood, as Jack Murtha likes to say.

Ben Johnson, the talented editor of Front Page has a brilliant op-ed on the lunacy of the left in dealing with the murder of al-Zarqawi:

How did much of the Left describe the killing of al-Qaeda murderer Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi? A “transparent psychological operations campaign run out of the Pentagon”; “a double tragedy”; “part of a larger and tragic story of miscalculation”; a possible fraud; a conspiracy; not “moral”; an “obscene spectacle”; no “big deal”; and good cause to beat a hasty retreat.