Another remininder of how perilously thin the line is between civilization and savagery. The fall is swift. 

Posted by judevac

the fall? this is strategic. this is multiple sides of a fight engaging in a planned terror campaign, when none of the parties were squeamish to start.

i heard on the radio this morning that bombs only kill about 10% of the civil war deaths. for every death by bombing since the start of the year, there have been 9 more by execution.

the principle of gun control laws is that deaths by guns are prevented only through limiting opportunity. abstinence doesn't work. laws don't keep people from getting angry; so an effective law, for a safer society, is one that limits the consequences of the anger.

we have engineered the situation in iraq to the point where no consequence is avoidable. if you are there, even if you want for something to never happen, there is no way to stop it, and it's entirely our doing - resolutely refusing to disarm the country when we had a chance not because we thought there would be flowers but because democracy is "messy," meaning, we wanted force to be an option for the parties we supported.

thrown, not fallen. 

Posted by hibiscus

sorry that's venting. way back when i speculated that there was a deal cut with the northern alliance in afghanistan to use their people instead of ours, in exchange for a turned head on the return of the heroin industry. as evidence showed up in favor of that, i realized that "incompetent" just doesn't do these people justice. "ruthless monsters" is the ticket. because if they really did cut that deal to trade heroin for limited US troop exposure in the ground fighting, at least part of that deal was made with an eye on selling the "cakewalk" later. which meant that the flower-laden blitzkrieg stuff could have been total  horseshit - that, as with afghanistan, they invaded to turn the country over to the devils.

by the beginning of 2002 the drug business was stronger than ever. who in washington didn't know this, i don't care. what i know is that the results in afghanistan and iraq are not the results of the same blind spot twice.

thrown! 

Posted by hibiscus

What horrifies me most is the camera phone. The echo of this .

Each one was photographed, then killed, lost to the world, replaced by the binary chemical reactions of a black and white photo, reduced to ones and zeroes. How things change.

People keep souveniers when they feel they have done something remarkable, something needing affirmation and memorial. Birthdays, weddings, bagging a peak. Nobody takes pictures at a funeral. When you accomplish something of which you are truly proud, you need not shoot a photo -- knowing you did it is enough. That video was shot for any number of reasons but it shows what that death was not: not secret, not shameful, not a thing of pride or dignity. The murderers are already murdered. 

Posted by hedgedog

i'm not sure. it could be that cameras now offer absolution, changing experience to footage, even without intent to publish. that which is recorded is unreal. 

Posted by hibiscus

There could be another reason for that camera phone... Such footage sells in some places . :(( 

Posted by anshul

IHTFP. Post a comment.