Wednesday, April 9, 2003

How warped is this world? How far removed are we, actually, from real life?

At the hight of the massacre of Iraqis, both civilians and soldiers, in their own country, the media has jumped on a story of a young boy who lost both his arms when an American missile destroyed his home in Baghdad. And this has "prompted a huge response" from the public. And more from the news report: "It has tugged at a few heartstrings. It was a very emotive picture. People seem to genuinely want to do something."

Want to do something?? Where the hell was this 'concerned' public when this completely foreseeable slaughter began? It has from the outset been obvious that the main casualities of this invasion were going to be the Iraqi people. Everybody who wanted to, even I, could see that all the talk about 'careful deployment', and that civilian casualties, from the bombing of this big city, were being 'carefully avoided', were nothing more than an attempt to lull the stupid masses into complacency over the horrors of what the US government was beginning. Nobody has the excuse, now, to say that he did not see this coming. Nobody. This blood is on our hands. All our hands.

But does the apathetic public use the belated wake-up call of this young amputee to act, finally, to try to stop this? Or to hold those, who orchestrated this, responsible?

No. The reaction is the same, pathetic, non-sensical farce that generally results from the media leading the masses through their own neatly made-up drama. The whole issue has become whether to send this particular boy to the UK for treatment. To give him $30.000 replacement arms. To help him "get used to his body image". Oh sure, the reports will acknowledge that money can not buy everything. "But with determination and the right resources he can get a lot out of life."

This is grotesque.

There is hardly a mention of the fact that the boy's six months pregnant mother, father, brother and seven other family members were murdered in the attack. Let alone all the thousands of other Iraqis being slaughtered in their own homes. It doesn't seem to be an issue. At all.

My wife is six months pregnant. I can not even begin to describe the hell that I would unleash upon those who would harm her, in any way. Now imagine how the raped nation of Iraq is feeling.