What It Does To Us

Trey Smith

I often have mused that I should start another blog entitled something like What Glenn Greenwald Wrote! Of all the various writers I read frequently, Greenwald is the one that I most frequently quote here. He pays attention to and makes astute observations about a number of important issues that are almost completely ignored by the mainstream media and often the alternative media as well.

In yesterday's column, he pointed out that Time Magazine pundit Joe Klein provided a ghoulish rationale for why it's a-ok for American drones to kill innocent Muslim children. You see, by killing them, we insure that they won't grow up to become terrorists who will kill our children.

Greenwald rightly points out that this is the same rationale the terrorists use to justify murdering innocent westerners. In fact, except for the definition of whom is innocent, Klein's rationale is no different from that of Osama bin Laden's!

Of course, America has utilized this justification before. In the 19th Century (and before), few had any compunction about slaughtering the innocent children of Indian nations because killing an Indian child insured the child wouldn't grow up to threaten Manifest Destiny.

The part of Greenwald's column that I will highlight today is:

One of the primary reasons war - especially protracted war - is so destructive is not merely that it kills the populations at whom it is aimed, but it also radically degrades the character of the citizenry that wages it. That's what enables one of America's most celebrated pundits to go on the most mainstream of TV programs and coldly justify the killing of 4-year-olds, without so much as batting an eyelash or even paying lip service to the heinous tragedy of that, and have it be barely noticed. Joe Klein is the face not only of the Obama legacy, but also mainstream US political culture.

While the wanton killing of innocents is the worst part of this mentality, in my mind, a very close second is the way it has warped the ethos of the American populace.

The people of the United States used to pride ourselves on the concepts of fair play and justice. As a predominantly Christian nation, we tempered the call for vengeance with the act of forgiveness. This nation -- one who said, Give us your tired, poor and hungry -- used to believe that children were innocents to be cherished and nurtured.

But all of these beliefs have been swept aside in a cloud of religious intolerance. Today, too many of my brethren heap the sins of parents and family members onto the heads of children. If your father or uncle is what we call a terrorist, then you are too. It doesn't matter if you are still breast feeding or barely out of diapers. You deserve to die based solely on the religion and/or culture that has been foisted upon you.

We have accepted the notion of death by association. If you are associated with the "bad guys" -- even if it's through no fault of your own -- you do not deserve one shred of mercy or compassion. You do not deserve one teardrop of sorrow. You deserve nothing but a bullet in your brain.

It sickens me to realize the depths we have fallen as a society. The very idea that the death of ANY child could be so casually shrugged off makes me feel as if we've completely lost our way and that we may be too far gone ever to find our way back.