Columnist Roger Simon Noticed the Stark Contrast between the Emotional Disengagement of the American Imperium and Ordinary People’s Living and Dying — President Obama’s Unwitting Support for Islamic Insurgents’ Most Persuasive Argument against Western Domination

© 2012 Peter Free

 

13 March 2012

 

 

Perhaps the most egregious of sins is not to care

 

American culture, to the degree that we can generalize, appears to have divorced itself from the suffering our military endures and that which our troops necessarily have to dish out to other peoples in the routine course of waging mistaken wars.

 

Columnist Roger Simon noticed a supreme example of this ethical disengagement yesterday:

 

Last month, American soldiers burned copies of the Quoran — “inadvertently,” we say — which led to attacks by Afghan soldiers that killed six U.S. soldiers.

 

Now a U.S. staff sergeant . . . with 11 years in the military and three tours of duty in Iraq, has allegedly killed 16 unarmed men, women and children.

 

The White House press briefing on Monday began with a presentation about fighting high gasoline prices, and then Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, opened things up for general questions.

 

Carney was then asked whether President Obama would continue with his plan to attend the NCAA tournament on Tuesday considering the terrible events in Afghanistan.

 

“His schedule has not changed,” Carney said.

 

“March Madness is just getting started. Many of us around this country enjoy this. March Madness is a wonderful tradition in American sport and culture.”

 

 Message: Life is good. For those who get to live it.

 

© 2012 Roger Simon, March Madness: Fun here, death abroad, Politico (13 March 2012) (paragraph split)

 

 

Are there excuses for brutalizing ethics in this manner?

 

Sure, but none of them are valid, given the Afghanistan mess the last two Presidents (and the public who supported them) created.

 

Those 16 Afghanis were all civilians.  Four were younger than 6.  “We” killed them after burning their holy book.

 

Their American slayer was almost certainly suffering the combined effects of the dehumanization that military training requires, prolonged service in combat zones, and perhaps traumatic brain injury.  On his fourth deployment, he spiraled toward losing control.  And none of his ranking officers presumably cared enough to intervene.

 

Tragic.  Foreseeable.  Predictable.  The price of misbegotten war.

 

America was once better than this.  At least in pretense.  Today, we don’t even care even about our purported values to put up a believable facade.

 

Madness.  Indeed.