During Rumsfeld's testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Joe Lieberman said the following:

Mr. Secretary, the behavior by Americans at the prison in Iraq is, as we all acknowledge, immoral, intolerable and un-American...

I cannot help but say, however, that those who were responsible for killing 3,000 Americans on September 11th, 2001, never apologized. Those who have killed hundreds of Americans in uniform in Iraq working to liberate Iraq and protect our security have never apologized.

And those who murdered and burned and humiliated four Americans in Fallujah a while ago never received an apology from anybody...

But Americans are different. That's why we're outraged by this.

It proved to be too much for blogger Joshua Marshall and Penn-state prof. Michael Berube. Apparently, Lieberman's statement was indefensible.

Berube, for example, writes,

Now, I won't dwell on the utter fatuousness of this justification for the rape, torture, and murder of random Iraqis-- every other sane person already has...

Slow down there. When exactly did Lieberman try to "justify" rape, torture, and murder of random Iraqis? Lieberman merely pointed out that we are different from the people we fight; that while we are outraged by mistreatment of civilians, our enemies relish it.

There's nothing fatuous about that.