Washington’s Blog – by David Swanson
We now know this. A young man who had successfully killed on a large scale went to his religious leader with doubts and was told that mass killing was part of God’s plan. The young man continued killing until he had participated in killing sprees that took 1,626 lives — men, women, and children.
I repeat: his death count was not the 16 or 9 or 22 lives that make top news stories, but 1,626 dead and mutilated bodies.
Do such things bother you?
What if you learned that this young man’s name was Brandon Bryant, and that he killed as a drone pilot for the U.S. Air Force, and that he was presented with a certificate for his 1,626 kills and congratulated on a job well done by the United States of America? What if you learned that his religious leader was a Christian chaplain?
Do such things still bother you?
What if you learned that most of the people killed by U.S. drones are civilians? That the pilots “double-tap,” meaning that they send a missile into a wedding party or a house and then wait for people to try to help the injured and send a second missile into them? That as a result one hears the injured screaming for hours until they die, as no one comes to help? That a drone pilot sent a missile into a group of children from which three children survived who recognized their dead brothers but had no idea that various pieces of flesh were what was left of their Mom and Dad and consequently cried out for those now gone-forever individuals?
Is this troubling?
What if President Obama’s claim of few or no civilian deaths was proven false by well-documentedreporting? And by the fact that most victims are targeted without even knowing their names?
What if a leading candidate for president in the past week were to both declare that the way to win a war is to start killing whole families, and stage a public Christian prayer session in order to win over a certain demographic of voters?
Is that bothering?
What if it became clear that police officers in the United States have been murdering people at a higherrate than drone pilots? Would you want to see police videos of their killings? Would you want to see drone videos of their killings? We have thus far gained limited access to the former and none to the latter.
What if it were discovered that gun murders in San Bernardino are almost routine. Would they all be equally tragic?
My point is not to cease caring about the tragedy that the television stations tell you to care about. I wish everyone would care 1,000 times more, and even better do something to take away the guns and the hatred and the culture of violence and the economic injustice and the alienation.
My point is that there are other tragedies that go unmentioned, including larger ones. And exploiting one tragedy to fuel hatred toward a large segment of the human population of earth is madness.
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/12/mass-killings-bother.html
Agree with everything EXCEPT take away the guns.
Yeah, I noticed that bit too. A blot on an otherwise fine essay. It boggles the mind to see people criticize government misuse of power on the one hand, then turn around and advocate drastically increasing government power.
The deaths from these mass shootings are unfortunate, but many people die every day from causes deemed too mundane for news coverage. It doesn’t make much sense to lose sleep over deaths from mass shootings without losing just as much sleep over the far greater number of deaths due to car accidents, falls from roofs, drownings, etc. Obviously I’d save those people’s lives if I could, but I can’t, so it makes little sense for me to worry about it.
The mass killings by the US government via airstrikes bother me a lot more. After all, I’m being forced to pay for them. They’re being done in my name, though against my will. They’re extremely cowardly, as they’re being used to attack people who are across the ocean and have no means of fighting back (though there is occasional retaliation through actual or so-called “terrorism”). It also pisses me off that so many Americans are sufficiently stupid and barbaric to support them.
I see David failed to mention the millions that have been butchered at the hands of the abortionists using ice picks and knives……..murder is murder and it all disturbs me deeply………imho self defense is the only reason to take another life
Little communist shit, go on and on about how the government causes it then blame THE PEOPLE for something the military does.
Talk about shooting the horse for being on the farm while a fox killed a chicken.
The thing is, Vekar, a solid majority of Americans support the drone strikes (assuming we can trust the polls). If that’s the case, then most of the people share responsibility for the deaths caused by government murderers. The people’s responsibility is somewhat diminished by the fact that this country is awash in propaganda, but some culpability remains.
It definitely bothers me….Because were next
Absolutely we’re next, when the powers that be, i.e. the zionist global masters, are done with america and it’s resources people will see that. But by then the people will be so disillusioned and divided it’ll be too late for most to know or do anything.
Fortunately, should the Imperial Forces ever resort to drone strikes (or any other air strikes) against Americans on US soil, Americans will be able to “express disapproval” much more easily than those hapless foreigners. We live within the same territory as those who manufacture, sell, pilot, support, and maintain those drones.
“Do Mass Killings Bother You?”
Not if they’re jews or communists.
lol…you always get right to the point
Not much time left, mary, so I see no point in beating around the bush. 😉
Perhaps mass shootings would bother me if there was any…
most of these “mass shootings” include less than 10 victims. Hardly MASS. Id like to see the body counts about 100x what they are on average(too many idiots) and way more gifford style attempts.