This really is unexceptional given the cruelty that has existed in Iraq's government arms and society for so long. We are really looking at the character of a people. One would not expect that to change overnight.
This overt cruelty or "blood lust" seems to be associated with Islam, in it Arab manifestation at least, and probably has its roots in the same sort of religious mentality that drove the "Christian" Inquisition in Europe.
Whichever side perpetrates those sort of things, it still is an evil. One can understand to some extent the repayment in kind by using the same sort of tactics the insurgents and terrorists also employ. War is always a dirty business.
The hope is that when democracy is more fully established in Iraq, these practices will come under international scrutiny via the judicial arm of the state and gradually be eliminated from the psyche of the nation.
That hope was quite impossible while Saddam and the Ba’athists were in control.
