It is an axiom of human nature, true in all cultures at all times and places, that if you reward bad behaviour, you will get more of it. This is not rocket science, and yet in the name of "compassion" or from lesser desiderata, the fixed principle of those who are weak in heart and mind, is to go right ahead. "Liberals" I call them, but the reader may call them anything she pleases. They are the people who can always find a reason to reward bad behaviour -- invariably at the price of punishing the opposed good behaviour. This in turn leads to transvaluations of good and bad, demanding additional cartloads of "nuance".
The usual, if rarely acknowledged, reason to reward bad behaviour, is to avoid immediate pain, or more precisely to trade it -- less pain now, for more pain later. Cowardice has never been short of plausible arguments, and conversely courage requires at least a moment of silence, for the "still small voice".
Why am I moralizing? Because we have to start somewhere, in considering the latest challenge presented in Iraq; which, if it is not dealt with effectively and memorably, will soon be a problem far outside Iraq.
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