Wednesday, October 17, 2012

I Wonder If...


I wonder if there would ever be another war,
if, 
instead of mass slaughtering civilians, civilian homes, schools, and critical infrastructure... only heads of state would be bombed. If the innocent civilian populations of all countries were strictly off limits in times of war, not to be touched by violence or destruction and instead only those directly responsible for war, those crying out and clamoring for war, would be the only ones targeted by the machines of war... I wonder, would we ever see another war? If only the presidential estates, the war think tanks, the political institutions, the highest seats of governments, parliaments and congresses were the sole targets of cluster bombs and land mines, if only the luxury homes and neighborhoods of the wealthiest and most powerful people were bombed to oblivion, if only the major corporations and major financial institutions and financial districts would be singled out for bunker busting, targeting by drones and D.U. munitions, which is only fair and right because these are the people responsible for war, if this was the way that wars were fought, do you think we would ever see another war?

And what if the nation's capitol was in flames after being brutally bombed into ruins, after white phosphorous bombs were liberally dropped from the sky, as the guys in thousand dollars suits and ties were burning and screaming in agony, (at least the ones who survived), along with the ladies in high heels wearing those huge Pebbles and Bam Bam pearl necklaces, if these utterly important worldly men and women were trapped and bleeding underneath smoking rubble, skin burning unstoppably, limbs torn off, brains on the walls, instead of sending in help, we sent in heavily armed troops and police, not to assist these people, but to point machine guns at them, at the politicians and heads of state, you know, to prevent looting. I wonder how well that would go?

I wonder if the bombed and injured politicians would applaud us and tell us we did the right thing in looking out for "stuff" in the midst of incalculable human suffering and need, instead of bending over backwards to save lives and help people. I'm sure they'd say it was the right thing to do. They've told us such behavior is the exact right thing to do, in Haiti, after Katrina, all over America, they've said so over and over again.

And what if we rounded up the filthy criminal bankers and corrupt liars and insiders and all of the cohort of official criminals and we hooded and shackled them, stripped off their clothes, gave them drug filled enemas so they'd pass out and put them on airplanes, headed to points unknown, and 12 hours later we dropped them in a foreign country and left them there to be brutally tortured, anally raped with sticks and bottles and gun barrels, and hung from their wrists in some dark and filthy cell for days at a time without food, without medical attention, where they were beaten daily and their bones were broken and they were injected with drugs against their will and mentally tortured every minute of every day with no contact with the outside world and no hope, how do you suppose that would go over? Do you suppose the self same politicians who enabled the crimes and created these laws in the first place would still stand up for their laws and say, "It is good that you've done this to protect us all". Do you suppose that could ever happen?

And what if any of those banker criminals and their partners in crime in congress and the greater political cesspit began to protest, saying, "You can't do this to us! We have legal rights! We demand a trial! We demand a lawyer! We demand the right to defend ourselves! We demand to know what we are being charged with!" And we said, "Shut your face, you ain't getting any of that. You're guilty because we say you're guilty. You're going to be in prison in a shit hole getting tortured for the rest of your life, you ain't got no rights, you don't deserve the benefits of our precious American rights", how do you suppose that would play out? Would the self same politicians who created all of this in the first place say, "Righto! Well done! It's the best thing for our country! That's freedom and democracy baby! That's genuine bona fide National Security!" Or instead, might they mess their own pants in fear and panic that it was all turning around and coming back to them, to the people who created all of these despicable practices in the first place?

How can it be that we are supposed to see no hypocrisy in the way the rules apply to all of the equal beings in our free and democratic country? How can it be that some things are unthinkable wrongs when they are done to some people, but are heroic democratic patriotic goodness when they are done to others? Which is it? It can't be both. It is either good to do these things or it is bad to do them. Unless of course you believe that some people are better than others so they don't deserve equal justice, they deserve to elude justice and be rewarded for their crimes while everyone else receives injustice and pays the highest price possible for crimes and misdemeanors, whether they are guilty or not. Is that free and democratic? Is that good and right and National Security and Law Enforcement O-Tastic goodness? Or is it total crap? I think it's grotesquely obvious total crap but what I think is not the question. The question is, what do you think?




10 comments:

  1. Thank you, dear Angie, for another bright example of what true journalism and real thinking are.
    Love, and the best of the rest,
    Paul (wariscrime.com)

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    1. The same back atcha Paul.

      Ang

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  2. I know it's total crap; I only don't know how to change it.

    Do you?

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    1. The best way I can think of is to get people thinking about it. It's going to take a lot more than just you or me to change it. The way out exists and the more people we have looking for it the better. Essentially, refusing to put up with it is the way to change it.

      Ang

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  3. Anonymous4:11 PM

    What way is there out? And what would people looking for it achieve? How many people have the chops to refuse to put up with the way things are? How many people would be willing to refuse to pay taxes? How many would it take to make the government pay attention in a meaningful way? There's 313 million of us. Gotta have a better plan than that. The reason talk is cheap is because it doesn't get anything done.

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    1. Okay, so what you're saying is talk never leads to anything. You're saying don't talk about this, shut up. Don't struggle. Just lay down and take it. Let them have everything they want. That's your advice? Because frankly, anything is better than that.

      Ang

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  4. Anonymous5:05 AM

    Of course there is an answer to the insanity of war, and the elite have always known it. The solution lies in education.

    Can you imagine the children of the elite being placed in front of the TV on Saturday afternoon to watch "war movies"? Do you think they're being raised to believe the highest form of honor is to fight and die for their country? Do you think their children are allowed to play "Army" out in the backyard and pretend to shoot at each other for fun?

    That's the way I was raised; the same way every generation of "proles" have been raised. We are taught the glory of war, but I guarantee you the children of John Paul Getty were not raised this way.

    The elite raise their kids to believe war is simply a means of culling the herds, of which they are definitely not a part. They are taught from the beginning that war is for profit--their profit, while it keeps the size of the herd manageable.

    They are raised to see that war is for the fools in the factories and the fields, not for those who live on the hill and make their living from the sweat and blood of the riff-raff below.

    And it works. It works because they learned centuries ago to play us like a violin.

    The curious thing is, we never seem to see through their plan. We always march off to another war, while they educate their children to take the money our blood produces for them and march off to another bank.

    And it looks as though it will never end, because it looks as though WE will never learn.

    An interesting thought was briefly proposed back in the '60s. "What if they gave a war--and nobody came?"

    -Wandering Bear-

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    1. Wandering Bear,

      Excellent comment. Some people may never learn, but there are others who can think for themselves.

      Ang

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  5. Funny how the religions of peace are so hell bent on war. As an Anon stated, it is in our children's education. Violent cartoons, television, movies, etc are all well and good and the Rabbi/Priest/Preacher have little to say come Sunday morning. But let Janet Jackson have a 'wardrobe malfunction' during prime time and the country loses it's collective mind. Another old saying from the 60's was, 'Make Love, Not War'. Words to live by.

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  6. Anonymous9:36 AM

    Education is key. The problem is our youth is being ill informed, misinformed or flat out lied to. History becomes history because someone says it happened that way. It really makes no difference if it actually happened that way or not. If our young are being told a false history it will become, over time, factual to them. When I speak to our nations youth I am constantly amazed by the lack of information that they have regarding our past and that the information that they have is either inaccurate, incomplete or flat out wrong. The saddest thing is that most really don't care. I can get the attention of some, but in this day and age of sound bites it's very difficult to keep their attention long enough for them to pick up the cause. Occasionally it does happen, and those are the instances that keep me talking. That little spark in the eye of someone who wakes up to the lies and starts to question.

    There is hope. I truly believe it. Thanks for the enlightening post Ang. Keep it up

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