A few minutes ago I was watching one of the most popular Sunday talk shows and they were speaking of the political ramifications of Bush Administration’s intransigence in Iraq. They were questioning and cajoling each other. There was a good deal of humor in their responses but in all of this there was a stupor about what is actually happening on the ground in Iraq. These pundits were more concerned about poll numbers and their own prognotications than they were with the safety of not only our own troops but the lives of the enemy and the hapless innocents. These men and at least one women seemed indifferent to it all. It was as if they were playing a board game. Human life and suffering seemed not to matter to them at all. They spoke euphemistically of the lives of the players in Iraq. It was sickening and appalling. These same pundits blessed the inauguration of this war. They were some of the biggest supporters of the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive invasion. Day after day and week after week we’ve seen pictures of dead Iraqis. Dead Americans are always surgically excised from broadcasts not out of respect for the dead, but more to keep public opinion from souring on this travesty. Yesterday we saw executioners putting a rope around the neck of a brutal dictator. Whether you support the death penalty or not there should be some respect for the living and a sense of decency. What must children think when viewing news programs? What message are we sending to children? A couple of years ago there was a phoney sense of outrage at the baring of Janet Jackson’s breast. If you looked quickly you could see a nipple. I have to laugh at the Victorian prudishness of our news programs. Nipples are blurred but blood and guts get center stage. A couple of years ago one of the cable news outlets actually aired a segment that showed American soldiers repeatedly shooting someone who was writhing along the ground.
Are we really the civilized country we believe ourselves to be? Are we really a Christian nation? Do we really believe that Jesus is the Christ? What would Jesus do and say?
I find it sad that so many people received some grim sort of satisfaction out of Husseins death. Certainly he deserved to be punished for his crimes-he was after all a mass murderer- but it amazes me how readily people relate his actions to 9/11, despite the fact that it has long ago been proven he had nothing to do with it. the blood lust is rising, and it’s a frightening thing.