Barbarism Du Jour
by Alex Symington…
As Louis Petrone’s article, “Mass Killings Common” in KonkLIFE (link below) pointed out there is nothing new to the horrors of man’s inhumanity to man, referring to the latest incarnation that is ISIS. I could not agree more. Mr. Petrone recalled several examples of atrocities, starting with “our own backyard”, of mass killings and beheadings of Native Americans upon the arrival of the English to their shores and murders and beheadings of African salves that had the audacity to rebel against their slave masters.
The list went on to include more well known horrors of the past perpetrated by various empires and militant religious zealots. I took from Mr. Petrone’s article that ISIS is simply the most recent example of this ancient behavior, but with the added weapon of technology that can instantly display live action imagery to show the world just how monstrous they are.
The old saw, “a picture is worth a thousand words” certainly applies to these bastards’ handiwork, but here’s a thought. What if we took a step back and looked at the bigger picture and asked the painful question, is it possible we may have contributed to the creation of this latest bogeyman? Hold on! Sorry, the US is viewed by many in the civilized world as Empire and not without good reason. Mother Jones Magazine reported back in November of 2014, “In the Persian Gulf alone, the US has major bases in every country save Iran. [Right wing war drums are beating, so stay tuned.] In Afghanistan and Iraq, there were once as many as 800 and 505 bases, respectively.” That just might upset the natives, don’t you think?
And this: “On their own, the existence of these bases has helped generate radicalism and anti-American sentiment. As was famously the case with Osama bin Laden and US troops in Saudi Arabia, bases have fueled militancy, as well as attacks on the United States and its citizens. They have cost taxpayers billions of dollars, even though they are not, in fact, necessary to ensure the free flow of oil globally. They have diverted tax dollars from the possible development of alternative energy sources and meeting other critical domestic needs. And they have supported dictators and repressive, undemocratic regimes, helping to block the spread of democracy in a region long controlled by colonial rulers and autocrats.” Not a very Norman Rockwell, mom and apple pie picture, is it?
If you were sitting in your home with your family and the Mexican Army busts down your door, shoots your dog and terrorizes your wife/husband and your children how are you going to react? You’re at a friend’s wedding and a Canadian Drone lobs a couple of missiles into the crowd making hamburger of the bride and groom and the flower girl, how are you going to react? You wake up to the rumbling of Russian tanks outside your house, how are you going to react. Are you going to welcome these invaders with open arms and thank them for killing your friends and shooting your dog? Probably not. It really isn’t that difficult to imagine. We, aka us, aka US Policy have done much to create the diseased Petri dish that is the Middle East.
If the preceding paragraph triggers a compulsion to justify what you perceive as our essential need for a vast global war machine to protect us from the Mexican Army, Canadian Drones and Russian tanks on Main Street, you have missed my point completely, but I digress.
Let’s go back to the beginning of this essay and the topic of man’s inhumanity to man. The other day I saw a fascinating bumper sticker on a parked car. (Please bear with me, all these things are related to each other) The bumper sticker read,” God Bless Our Troops, Especially Our Snipers”…My first thought was, wouldn’t shooting women and kids from a half mile away be more in Satan’s bailiwick, not God’s? Then it occurred to me; this is how we kill without remorse. This is how it is done.
The latest glorification and justification of barbarism, the rationalization du jour has come from Hollywood in the form of “American Sniper”. Before this movie that bumper sticker would have been viewed as completely tasteless and certainly nothing to do with God, but after the movie… yeah, baby, God loves a good American sniper, like nobody’s business. As the movie schooled us, calling a human a “savage” often enough makes it a lot easier to put a bullet in their brain, or torture them or bomb them or invade and subjugate them and at the same time ironically absolves the “good guy” of his/her own savagery. Incidentally, good cinema and propaganda are by no means mutually exclusive.
Let’s go back to the use of live action images to spread terror. Here’s the thing, if the barbaric act alone was all we needed to be horrified how do we explain the general acceptance in the US of images of people being tortured by US soldiers in Iraq? How do we explain Corporal Bradley Manning rotting in a military prison for showing the American people the images of the murder of Iraqi journalists and children by our guys in uniform? What if we saw live action images of children screaming and burning alive from napalm strikes in hamlets in Vietnam, would we be as horrified as the images from ISIS of the Jordanian pilot burning?
It takes structured and purposeful conditioning to be ok with OUR barbaric behavior yet at the same time horrified at other perpetrators of the same behavior. Blind acceptance of this dissonant psychological paradigm of what is done in our name, the illusion of “the other”, if you will, is what makes all forms of inhumanity to our fellow humans possible. Until we attend to the beam in our eye, pointing to motes in others is an exercise in futility and tacit approval of the status quo of human barbarism.
http://konknet.com/konk-life/columns/key-west-lou/2015-03-12-4
Tragically, the post-9/11 American psyche feels no regret about any atrocities we perform. The burned pilot film was mostly about the five kids among many civilians burned alive from air strikes by pilots like him. American media did not show any of those photos.
But I don’t think the American people care now, Alex. We’ve seen, forgiven, and forgotten Abu Ghraib. The sniper movie is the most popular of any on the Arab wars. Our greatest punishments are for those who make us feel bad by showing our crimes, like Manning and Snowden.
I see nothing to do but pray for our nation’s soul.
Alex, I’ve often wondered how killing massively with bombs and technology can be considered more “civilized” than the barbarism of ISIS, et al. I remember seeing a promo for the American Sniper movie where the sniper is lining up a shot against an Arab woman dressed in a jalaba who is supposed to be carrying a dangerous weapon under her clothing. The supposition is that she is going to do some harm against … whatever. I don’t doubt her motives, but the real question that should be asked is this: what exactly is this American sniper doing in her country? Why have they become mutual enemies? What is he doing, half way around the world, in her land, trying to kill her? To some extent, one can see the reasons for her motives, but what is the reason for the sniper’s motives? What has her people done to him that justifies him being there? Do you think Clint Eastwood ever asked himself these questions? Has he ever asked himself why we made war in Iraq? It’s a shame such a talented artist has such a stunted intellect. It’s dangerous. Thanks Alex.
Good article, Alex. Rick, Alex, us old farts remember the atrocity America’s war in Vietnam was: the entire war, plus the countless atrocity incidents. Younger farts have joined us in having the same view of America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who in America can complain about ISIS, or about al Qaeda, Iran, or even Israel, or Russia, when the atrocity beam in America’s eye is so huge? I also wonder, Alex: What was Clint Eastwood thinking, glorifying a sniper? What was Eastwood thinking, not painting America’s presence in Iraq as an atrocity? Alas, he represents lots of Americans, probably a majority, or more than a majority. I mean, the great Nobel Peace Prize winner is still using his soldiers to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other places, and he has about half of America backing his presidency. And today I read in the Key West Citizen that a move is on for his wife, that would be Michelle Obama, to run on for President in 2016. I’m sure that thrills Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton to hear. I don’t see anybody talking about running for president, for whom I would vote. I agree, Alex, I see nothing to do but pray for our nation’s soul, and hope it brings back a Divine Intervention that deals with what you covered in your article. And deals with lots more than that. Oh, my, would it be interesting, if that happened. Oh, my. Hopefully, after I’m done farting and am out of here.n
It was lead drummer Netanyahu that just addressed the US Congress for yet another annihilation of a mid east country.
My prediction is that if the US has a female as its next president, she will go down in history as the largest mass murderer of all time. The sacred feminine will be stomped on for good. But the morons who vote for the likes of an evil like Hillary won’t care because all that matters to them is that she possesses a vagina.
Alex, Rick, Jerome and Sloan you are ‘My Brothers’. In every sense of the word.
I don’t feel love, nor do I give my friendship or support to those who sow seeds of hate, violence and war. Setting my emotions aside, my effort has been to love the sinner and hate the sin.
For reasons I have described, I chose to wear a United States Marine Corps uniform. I was an active participant in combat operations , while serving in Vietnam. My intentions and motives were honorably, however after the fact, I’ve come to realize that they may have been misguided.
My behavior and the conduct of the Marines that I served with, as it related to the civilian populations that we were in contact with, reflected a standard of compassion, care and love; not frequently displayed on the Hollywood screens.
Please be assured that in the abyss, death and suffering decreased for the ‘innocents’ because of the actions of my Marines. Perhaps we did not belong there, that being said, we handled the realties that were before us, as it related to civilians, with empathy, grace and humanity. There was not any excessive force, brutality or violations of the UCMJ under our watch.
For sure, I’ve seen the pictures of ‘burnt villages’, murdered civilians and children running with their bodies adorned in burning napalm.
I’ve also experienced children and their families being impaled, assassinated, buried alive and simply executed for none compliance with the demands of their VC and NVA overlords.
War is a very toxic, frightening and unstable condition that breeds conditions which bring out the worst in people. This insanity destabilizes cultures and countries, along with those waging it, as its evil manifests every manner of rationalization for murder and slaughter (body count strategy).
16 steady years of war, released a lot of poison and venom into our collective psyches. It’s maddening impact can still be witnessed.
And guess what, we haven’t learned a thing from that tragedy.
I am going to call the braggers and boasters out (sniper movie). Celebrating the killing of a human being is sickening and un-American. I’m putting the finishing touches on that article.
I stood with my sign, in my Marine Corps regalia on the US 1 divide at MM 100 in Key Largo, against W’s first war in Iraqi. I instinctively and intuitively knew that they did not have a clue.
We do what we do. And the world is a better place because of it. By the way, the cosmos is in an upward trajectory, where virtue and love will expand and predominate.
Blessings & Respect
John, I have no doubt you and your Marine companions performed as you say in this article, but … that does not erase the fact that you were all there based upon a set of mistaken Anglo-Euro concepts of the world that rendered your service not just useless but negative. I regret I could not have been there with you on US 1 when this Iraqi disaster came along. You are as brave in peace as I’m sure you were in war. A hug, Jerome
Thank you, John. Thank, you.
Sister, you may be right about a woman being elected the next US president, especially Hillary, or Sarah Palin. My opinion, both are good examples of men wearing women’s bodies. As for Israel, as I have posted under other blue paper articles, and at my websites, many times, right after 9/11, the angels running me told me America should bet out of the middle East altogether and stop all aid to Israel, and let Israel and Islam fight it out, or work it out, and in that way learn which of them is “God’s chosen people.” Might be neither will care for what they learn.
Jerome, Alex’s article and the comments under it segue from your https://thebluepaper.com/why-war-is-bad/#comment-3193 article and comments under it in last Friday’s blue paper. Was reminded in a dream last night of one of my comments under your article, Jerome.
Sloan Bashinsky says:
March 18, 2015 at 5:03 am
I have been told in the past, by my spirit handlers, absence of the feminine is the cause of all wars on this world, including all man-made wars.
For a Divine Intervention of the feminine into USA, is the prayer I was asked in 2012 to make. I have repeated the prayer a few times.
The feminine vibration/essence is different from the male vibration/essence. Without her, the male vibration/essence is unnatural, and, thus, behaves unnaturally. (And vice-versa). She is absent in humanity. Thus, the mess humanity is and makes.
If the female essence/vibration has a successful insurgency in USA, the dominant human nation on this planet (presently), perhaps she will spread and infuse herself into humanity everywhere on this planet. If that happens, humanity will be very different.
The getting there might not make many humans happy, though, not even women humans. The human population might decrease. Perhaps dramatically. Perhaps only a few thousand humans would survive the changes, which are internal and play out in the external. Or perhaps the angels have a different way of infusing the female vibration/essence back into humanity on this planet, than the methods they used on me and on a few people I have known.
Sloan, et. al., The “feminine” has just about been annihilated in our society, for both genders. Feminism is a misnomer; it should be called Masculinism.
Jerome, agreed. The feminine is seriously misunderstood on this planet. I wrote a bit about her today in the http://goodmorningkeywest.com/?p=29166 post – ” divergent insurgency … barbaric tales de jour … the feminine cure, from Key West, the city with more bartenders per person than anywhere ” – using various human events and interactions, and including links to Alex’s and your articles at the blue paper.
Sloan, I’m honored for the links you mention. ciao, Jerome