The Most Dangerous Animal
Human Nature and the Origins of War
Chapter One
A Bad-Taste Business
Evil is unspectacular and always human, and shares our bed and eats at our own table.
—w. h. auden, herman melville
on monday, september 20, 2004, Islamic militants in Iraq executed an American construction worker named Eugene Armstrong. Four men, masked and clothed in black, tensely clutched their automatic weapons while the bound and blindfolded Armstrong knelt in front of them. “God’s soldiers from Tawhid and Jihad were able to abduct three infidels of God’s enemies in Baghdad,” the leader intoned, “. . . by the name of God, these three hostages will get nothing from us except their throats slit and necks chopped, so they will serve as an example.” The long knife sliced through Armstrong’s flesh. He screamed. Blood gushed from his neck. His body shuddered and became limp. The executioner placed the dripping, severed head on the back of Armstrong’s lifeless body. Do y ...
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