Inappropriately entertained by cruelty

From thesmokinggun.com:

MAY 24--In a recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq, U.S. military officials recovered an assortment of crude drawings depicting torture methods like "blowtorch to the skin" and "eye removal."
Do you ever find yourself amused by something that really shouldn't be the least bit funny? I am ashamed of myself, but I found myself in that condition as I was looking at these "crude drawings." The first few were shocking, but when I got to this one...


Is it me, or is the guy with the iron smiling? There is something about the angle of his head that conveys a sort of contentment. "You know you are enjoying this, my friend. What did you say? No starch? When we are done with the housework I will make the Cup 'o Soup and we will watch Dancing with the Stars, ok my friend?"

OK, I got that out of my system.

There is something odd about this series of instructional torture illustrations. Do you really need drawings to teach people how to blowtorch someone? And if you are making these for al Qaeda, why are they in English? Maybe these are not really instructional, just the sketch pad from some jihadist who would rather be an art major?

Our world today seems to be rife with questions and short on answers.

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