Just for the hell of it, let's imagine a scenario in which a crazed suicide bomber walks into a crowded church, store, school, or stadium in America, sets off his explosive device and kills scores of people. Let's say that happened every day for about a week, leaving over a hundred dead and untold numbers of victims hospitalized. Think we'd notice? Think it would rate high enough on the "If it bleeds, it leads" chart to make the evening news?
You know it would, because we see how the media reacts to mass shootings when they occur here. A madman takes a semi-automatic assault rifle to the movies and kills a dozen or so, wounding 70, and our entire world stops spinning while we try to sort out the terror of the moment. A guy walks into a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin and kills six people before being killed by police, and we can't learn enough about the guy to suit our needs.
But over in liberated Iraq, the pride and joy of neocons everywhere, daily slaughters ten times worse are happening, and no one wants to talk about it. We got Sadaam, right? Mission accomplished. Got our kids out of the meat grinder, so what do we care?
Here's why we should care: We brought Iraq to this sorry state of affairs. Our leaders convinced us (and the world) that Iraq was the epicenter of world terrorism and was a blink of an eye away from acquiring nuclear capabilities. We were told there were weapons of mass destruction there and that without our intervention our own national security was at risk.
A lot of well-connected corporate honchos made millions off of that invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. Oh... my bad, we didn't invade and occupy Iraq, we LIBERATED Iraq. Freed 'em up from the yoke of dictatorship so they could be slaughtered at the corner market by the people we supposedly routed out of town.
A mass shooting in this country deserves our attention, but so does a shooting or bombing in Baghdad. WE OWE THOSE PEOPLE MORE THAN A WAVE GOODBYE AS WE ROLL THE HUMVEES OVER THE BORDER.
To paraphrase Colin Powell's warning about Iraq, we should be dealing with the Pottery Barn theory of things today. WE BROKE IT, WE HAVE TO PAY FOR IT.
But we don't even acknowledge the slaughter. Not our problem. That shit's in our rearview mirror, and we're doing our level best to just forget it ever happened. In fact, we can't wait to get another shit storm started just over the border in Iran... because those people need liberating, too! And besides, they're working on weapons of mass destruction, even as we speak!
We don't clean up our messes. We're too busy looking for new ones to make.
Film at eleven? Don't count on it. You'll hear more about Tom Cruise's divorce than about a terrorist attack in Iraq on the nightly news.
Mass shooting in Milwaukee? We're all over that. Bomb went off in Baghdad? Meh...
You know it would, because we see how the media reacts to mass shootings when they occur here. A madman takes a semi-automatic assault rifle to the movies and kills a dozen or so, wounding 70, and our entire world stops spinning while we try to sort out the terror of the moment. A guy walks into a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin and kills six people before being killed by police, and we can't learn enough about the guy to suit our needs.
But over in liberated Iraq, the pride and joy of neocons everywhere, daily slaughters ten times worse are happening, and no one wants to talk about it. We got Sadaam, right? Mission accomplished. Got our kids out of the meat grinder, so what do we care?
Here's why we should care: We brought Iraq to this sorry state of affairs. Our leaders convinced us (and the world) that Iraq was the epicenter of world terrorism and was a blink of an eye away from acquiring nuclear capabilities. We were told there were weapons of mass destruction there and that without our intervention our own national security was at risk.
A lot of well-connected corporate honchos made millions off of that invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. Oh... my bad, we didn't invade and occupy Iraq, we LIBERATED Iraq. Freed 'em up from the yoke of dictatorship so they could be slaughtered at the corner market by the people we supposedly routed out of town.
A mass shooting in this country deserves our attention, but so does a shooting or bombing in Baghdad. WE OWE THOSE PEOPLE MORE THAN A WAVE GOODBYE AS WE ROLL THE HUMVEES OVER THE BORDER.
To paraphrase Colin Powell's warning about Iraq, we should be dealing with the Pottery Barn theory of things today. WE BROKE IT, WE HAVE TO PAY FOR IT.
But we don't even acknowledge the slaughter. Not our problem. That shit's in our rearview mirror, and we're doing our level best to just forget it ever happened. In fact, we can't wait to get another shit storm started just over the border in Iran... because those people need liberating, too! And besides, they're working on weapons of mass destruction, even as we speak!
We don't clean up our messes. We're too busy looking for new ones to make.
Film at eleven? Don't count on it. You'll hear more about Tom Cruise's divorce than about a terrorist attack in Iraq on the nightly news.
Mass shooting in Milwaukee? We're all over that. Bomb went off in Baghdad? Meh...
2 comments:
You hit the nail on the head, Squat. What shows up in the news these days is so filtered it's nauseating. I barely bother to watch or read the news anymore because it's always the same. Except the weather. I watch the weather part just to see how bad the meteorologist is going to fuck up the forecast.
The survivors don't even have the good graces to thank us for liberating them.
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