SYNDICATED COLUMN: 13 > 2,000,000
Fort Hood Shootings a Shocker…Why Not U.S. War Crimes?
American lives are worth a lot. So when Americans get killed, it's a big story. There are lots of editorials. Congressmen call for investigations. We want to find out what happened, why it happened, and how to make sure it never happens again.
The lives of foreigners, on the other hand, are pretty much worthless. Even when they die because Americans killed them, news accounts marking their deaths are short, sweet, and short-lived. Congressional investigations? No way. To the contrary! If anyone is inconsiderate enough to mention the killings of people overseas in a public forum, they get shouted down or simply ignored.
The massacre of 13 soldiers at an Army post in Texas earlier this week places this dichotomy in sharp relief.
The FBI is already helping Army investigators. In addition, Senator Joe Lieberman has announced that his Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will launch a full investigation into "every angle" of the shooting, including the motives of the suspect and whether or not government eavesdroppers could have prevented it by notifying Army officials of his contacts with a radical Muslim cleric. Over in the House, Representative Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat, has summoned national intelligence director Dennis Blair to answer questions about Fort Hood before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
But wait—there's more. "Other committees may also launch investigations into how the Army missed warning signs about the accused," reports The Politico.
All sorts of hands are being wrung.
Major Hasan, an army psychiatrist, ministered to victims of post-traumatic stress syndrome who told him terrible stories about combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Should someone have helped him cope too?
Ordered to deploy to the war zone, he asked not to go—and was refused. Should the Army be more flexible?
Is it reasonable to ask a religious Muslim to deploy to Afghanistan or Iraq, wars where he would be asked to kill his coreligionists?
Then there are the phone taps. "U.S. military officials said intelligence agencies intercepted communications between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a former imam at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, a Washington suburb," reported CNN. "Al-Awlaki, who left the United States in 2002 and is believed to be living in Yemen, was the subject of several federal investigations dating back to the late 1990s, but was never charged." As jihadis do at the start of an attack, Hasan reportedly cried "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire. Shouldn't someone have noticed that the nice shrink with the dopey smile had become a radical Islamist?
The shock, grief and soul-searching are all reasonable reactions to a brutal and tragic event. But it's not hard to imagine how it looks to the outside world. While the media and public obsess over the deaths of 13 fellow Americans, they ignore the deaths of hundreds of thousands of foreigners.
The American military has killed roughly two million people in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001. Those attacks were illegal—no declaration of war, no UN mandate—and are largely recognized as such by the American public. Many of the victims were killed with chemical and radioactive weapons, and some while under torture. In other words, these are crimes—some of the biggest mass murders in human history.
So where are the Congressional investigations? Don't we want to find out what happened, how it happened, and make sure it never happens again? Apparently not.
President Obama has chosen to "move forward" instead. No one—not George W. Bush, nor his advisers, nor the military officers who carried out his illegal orders, is being held accountable.
There are no angry editorials. The illegal wars, instead of being brought to an end, are being ramped up. The crimes—yes, including the torture—continues. But it's OK—as long as it doesn't happen here in the United States. It's OK to rain death on Pakistanis using drone planes...gotta spare those precious American lives!
Mass murder is shocking when the victims are Americans; it's doubly shocking when it happens in America.
Thirteen soldiers die in Texas and it's all we talk about. Two million die in Afghanistan and Iraq and we don't notice and we don't even want to hear about it. Only 12 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 can find Afghanistan on a map.
The punk band T.S.O.L. wrote the soundtrack to this attitude a quarter-century ago: "We live in the American zone/Free of fear in our American home/Swimming pool and digital phone."
Still wondering why they hate us?
(Ted Rall is the author, with Pablo G. Callejo, of the new graphic memoir "The Year of Loving Dangerously." He is also the author of the 2002 graphic travelogue "To Afghanistan and Back.")
COPYRIGHT 2009 TED RALL
American lives are worth a lot. So when Americans get killed, it's a big story. There are lots of editorials. Congressmen call for investigations. We want to find out what happened, why it happened, and how to make sure it never happens again.
The lives of foreigners, on the other hand, are pretty much worthless. Even when they die because Americans killed them, news accounts marking their deaths are short, sweet, and short-lived. Congressional investigations? No way. To the contrary! If anyone is inconsiderate enough to mention the killings of people overseas in a public forum, they get shouted down or simply ignored.
The massacre of 13 soldiers at an Army post in Texas earlier this week places this dichotomy in sharp relief.
The FBI is already helping Army investigators. In addition, Senator Joe Lieberman has announced that his Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will launch a full investigation into "every angle" of the shooting, including the motives of the suspect and whether or not government eavesdroppers could have prevented it by notifying Army officials of his contacts with a radical Muslim cleric. Over in the House, Representative Silvestre Reyes, a Texas Democrat, has summoned national intelligence director Dennis Blair to answer questions about Fort Hood before the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
But wait—there's more. "Other committees may also launch investigations into how the Army missed warning signs about the accused," reports The Politico.
All sorts of hands are being wrung.
Major Hasan, an army psychiatrist, ministered to victims of post-traumatic stress syndrome who told him terrible stories about combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Should someone have helped him cope too?
Ordered to deploy to the war zone, he asked not to go—and was refused. Should the Army be more flexible?
Is it reasonable to ask a religious Muslim to deploy to Afghanistan or Iraq, wars where he would be asked to kill his coreligionists?
Then there are the phone taps. "U.S. military officials said intelligence agencies intercepted communications between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki, a former imam at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, a Washington suburb," reported CNN. "Al-Awlaki, who left the United States in 2002 and is believed to be living in Yemen, was the subject of several federal investigations dating back to the late 1990s, but was never charged." As jihadis do at the start of an attack, Hasan reportedly cried "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire. Shouldn't someone have noticed that the nice shrink with the dopey smile had become a radical Islamist?
The shock, grief and soul-searching are all reasonable reactions to a brutal and tragic event. But it's not hard to imagine how it looks to the outside world. While the media and public obsess over the deaths of 13 fellow Americans, they ignore the deaths of hundreds of thousands of foreigners.
The American military has killed roughly two million people in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001. Those attacks were illegal—no declaration of war, no UN mandate—and are largely recognized as such by the American public. Many of the victims were killed with chemical and radioactive weapons, and some while under torture. In other words, these are crimes—some of the biggest mass murders in human history.
So where are the Congressional investigations? Don't we want to find out what happened, how it happened, and make sure it never happens again? Apparently not.
President Obama has chosen to "move forward" instead. No one—not George W. Bush, nor his advisers, nor the military officers who carried out his illegal orders, is being held accountable.
There are no angry editorials. The illegal wars, instead of being brought to an end, are being ramped up. The crimes—yes, including the torture—continues. But it's OK—as long as it doesn't happen here in the United States. It's OK to rain death on Pakistanis using drone planes...gotta spare those precious American lives!
Mass murder is shocking when the victims are Americans; it's doubly shocking when it happens in America.
Thirteen soldiers die in Texas and it's all we talk about. Two million die in Afghanistan and Iraq and we don't notice and we don't even want to hear about it. Only 12 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 can find Afghanistan on a map.
The punk band T.S.O.L. wrote the soundtrack to this attitude a quarter-century ago: "We live in the American zone/Free of fear in our American home/Swimming pool and digital phone."
Still wondering why they hate us?
(Ted Rall is the author, with Pablo G. Callejo, of the new graphic memoir "The Year of Loving Dangerously." He is also the author of the 2002 graphic travelogue "To Afghanistan and Back.")
COPYRIGHT 2009 TED RALL
posted by Ted Rall at
9:39 AM
35 Comments:
I can't even believe how up-in-arms the Fox News watchers are about this. Hannity and Malkin are repeating like a mantra, eight times an hour, "Political Correctness Kills. It kills OUR BOYS," **sniff**, "OUR BOYS in Uniform who are Heroes defending our Freedom..."
His viewers really believe that because one jihadi shot soldiers on American soil, it's an indictment of all one billion of the world's Muslims. "I just don't understand how you liberals _still_ aren't in favor of Pogroms after _ALL THIS_." Yeah, but when an abortion doctor gets shot, that's not an indictment of a whole political philosophy, that's just a legitimate difference of opinion. When a Postal worker or a high school student goes, errr, "Postal", that's not an indictment of a society that grinds the working classes like cogs in a machine, that's just a lone nut.
I happen to live in 'flyover' country right now, and everyone around me is totally abuzz over this. Somebody please, please log on and tell me there are still portions of America which are sane...
(Too much to hope for, I guess.)
This guy was supposed to pop during the Cheney regime and boy what a Christmas Present that would have been, eh?
Sane? In America?
Not after 2000 and the Bush presidency.
You'd be better off finding 'sane' somewhere in Europe. Just pick a country at random.
As for the deaths of foreigners, they don't vote. Nor do they worship the correct god. They hate our freedom. Or haven't you heard?
Sure, we may be more aware of atrocity these days, but we're still as apathetic as we were before, and thus won't lift a finger until it affects us directly. Even this shooting in Texas seems far away and isolated to me, if only because it isn't happening in my own state and I've heard enough stories of soldiers losing it for one reason or another.
Like I said- apathy.
OUR BOYS in Uniform who are Heroes defending our Freedom...
I remember when Ted had the balls to shoot this bullshit down on television. He said our freedoms didn't come from the soldiers, but from our Constitution.
This is why I read Rall.
Yep, Ted is calling this... thanks for the comments, Henry and Grouchy... not to detract from Our Benevolent Host too much, but what you're describing reminds me of what another blogger, The Cunning Realist, wrote:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I liked this observation by Haffner {A historian writing about Weimar Germany right before the Nazis --T.D.} (my bolds):
A generation of young Germans had become accustomed to having the entire content of their lives delivered gratis, so to speak, by the public sphere, all the raw material for their deeper emotions, for love and hate, joy and sorrow, but also all their sensations and thrills -- accompanied though they might be by poverty, hunger, death, chaos, and peril. Now that these deliveries suddenly ceased, people were left helpless, impoverished, robbed, and disappointed. They had never learned to live from within themselves, how to make an ordinary private life great, beautiful, and worthwhile, how to enjoy it and make it interesting. So they regarded the end of the political tension and the return of private liberty not as a gift, but as a deprivation.
What is the state of Americans' interior lives right now? The past fifteen years have featured the following in rapid succession: a stock market bubble and crash, a bitterly contested presidential election, 9/11, anthrax attacks, the invasion of Afghanistan, war in Iraq, a housing bubble and national binge followed by economic collapse, and a historic presidential election. For a decade and a half there's been a series of national obsessions, an unprecedented, formative, near-constant stream of "raw material" from the "public sphere."
With the frenzy over the financial market collapse now fading, those deliveries, as Haffner put it, have suddenly ceased. Throw in a materialist culture and a consumer who can't afford toys anymore, and you've got a lot of people without an interior life to fall back on. Giddy chatter about revolution and fond memories of war and torture beat sitting quietly in a room wondering who you are.
I happen to live in 'flyover' country right now, and everyone around me is totally abuzz over this. Somebody please, please log on and tell me there are still portions of America which are sane...
(Too much to hope for, I guess.)
Thomas, New York isn't necessarily saner than other places. It drank the Kool-Aid after 9/11. But New Yorkers just cannot and will not ever get riled up about something that happens in Texas, even when perpetrated by Islamojihadifascists. (Sorry Texans, but it's true.) The conversations I hear on the street are mostly local issues. On national issues, health care is the hottest topic.
Hope that helps.
In regards to this case, I say this:
Falls Church, Virginia is right under the Feds' mutherfuckin' noses. Many high-up government officials live in Falls Church. They should've seen this one coming a mile away.
I smell a big, fat rat.
His viewers really believe that because one jihadi shot soldiers on American soil, it's an indictment of all one billion of the world's Muslims.
How do you know what his viewers believe?
Hannity and Malkin have not indicted 1 billion Muslims.
He said our freedoms didn't come from the soldiers, but from our Constitution.
Our freedoms come from neither. They come from our creator.
Yeah, but when an abortion doctor gets shot, that's not an indictment of a whole political philosophy, that's just a legitimate difference of opinion. When a Postal worker or a high school student goes, errr, "Postal", that's not an indictment of a society that grinds the working classes like cogs in a machine, that's just a lone nut.
Yes. Excellent points. Micheal Moore's only serious movie, Bowling for Columbine, tries to make sense of America's hyper-violent society. Anybody who thinks that movie is about "gun control" is missing the point...
"Only 12 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 can find Afghanistan on a map."
Another triumph for No Child Left Behind!
Billy Jack, Jeanie and the kids are looking for you.
zencomix,
""Only 12 percent of Americans aged 18 to 24 can find Afghanistan on a map."
Another triumph for No Child Left Behind!"
Why yes of course! How couldn't I see it. It's Bush's fault that we are so dumb now. Before Bush American's were the proverbial Atlantians. Bright, smart, great at everything. But with Bush American intellect faltered. Before Bush every American from fetus to corpse could find every country, province, county, city, etc. in the map from the beginning of time until today.
Zen, thank you for uncovering this fact! Thank you!
Another triumph for No Child Left Behind!
Actually it's a triumph of the crappy public education system. Charter school children do much better in school.
I really shouldn't feed trolls, but I think this is worth discussing. In response to:
Billy Jack:
How do you know what his viewers believe?
Hannity and Malkin have not indicted 1 billion Muslims.
I have mentioned on this blog a few times that many of my relatives are very conservative. Normally I live in California, but right now I am having an extended stay with my parents who retired to New Mexico.
My parents have Fox News blasting at high volume almost 24 hours a day, and refuse my pleas to change it, specifically because they say they want to "convert" me. Besides the background noise, they attempt to "convert" me with the crude and ineffective strategy of pestering me every twenty minutes with questions about why I am not as outraged as Hannity and O'Reilly and they are. "Don't you think that the Fort Hood shooting is obviously an act of War, and not a crime?"
Besides my parents -- their landscaper, and the doctor I saw two weeks ago, have also dropped verbatim Hannity talking points to me in an effort to initiate small-talk. These people, whom I don't know well, are so excited about the issues Hannity brings up, that they forget even the small diplomatic nicety of asking what are my opinions, before parroting to me the Sean Hannity transcript from the afternoon before. Apart from a couple of neighbors, these are all the people I know here, so that's why I say "everyone around me is totally abuzz".
So, Billy Jack, I know very well what Hannity viewers believe, because they walk up to me and force their opinions on me despite my best efforts to fend them off.
And so what are their opinions? Well, this week, Hannity had Michelle Malkin and two other people on his show express the opinion that all Muslims should be "purged" (their word, eerie agreement) from the US military. And Sean, and my parents, agree and assent. A couple of days ago, I heard a guest say that the reason Muslims should be "purged" from the military, is because "the more devout Muslim they are, the more likely they are to be a terrorist." Again assent from Hannity. This is an indictment of the entire Muslim religion, one billion strong, just as sure as if I were to say that Dr. Tiller's murder is an indictment of all Catholics everywhere. Do these incidents "prove" that Catholics can't be trusted with guns? Why not? Both Tiller's gunman, and also Nidal Hasan, were motivated by religious reasons to believe that their act of murder was saving lives.
On a separate but related issue, just a couple hours ago, I believe it was on Cavuto's show, he had a "911 Mother" (she lost her son) commenting on the Guantanamo prisoners, including KSM, being moved to New York for trial. This woman suffered a horrific loss, and I sympathize with her, but I don't believe it'd be a good idea to base our system of government upon her feelings and logic right now. She said, "Why do we need a trial? He already confessed that he's guilty." Cavuto, and my parents, nodded and grunted their respectful agreement. So that's probably the next mantra the Fox viewers are going to be repeating to the rest of us.
People, it's a very small step from "Why do we need a trial? He's confessed that he's guilty" up to "Why do we need a trial? We already know that he's guilty!" And if that becomes public opinion in the US, then we can thank Fox News.
opinions are like assholes, everbody has one... give it a rest what makes you think things will get better? Look after yourself and fuck the world....
mike
It's "Jean and the kids at the school," not Jeanie. Jeanie came out of a bottle.
Mr. Daulton, you should be nothing short of enthusiastic about discussing FOX, Hannity, et al with your parents, landscaper, doctor, etc. Since they are probably not viewers of the Daily Show nor readers of ThinkProgress, and are therefore unaware of recent events, imagine the delight involved in showing them how FOX has been caught blatantly falsifying video footage to achieve their nefarious ends.
Line them up in front of the computer. Show them Stewart's evidence first:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/archives/184866.asp?source=mypi
Then, when they mealy-mouth about it being an isolated incident or, as Hannity lied about it, an "inadvertant" error, you can follow up with their getting caught doing the same damned thing last March:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/17/fox-news-biden-fundamentals/
Personally, I've been having a blast beating FOX-fascists over the nose with this. At the very least, it will be a conversation-stopper in future. Nobody in their right mind would tune in to a network that so bold-facedly promotes false information. Drop the name of Dan Rather into the conversation if you must. The point is, you don't have to take it anymore.
Thomas,
Based on your experiences, I can understand your opinions about conservatives. I have one person in my family who insists on trying to convert everyone to be his particular brand of Christian (of which I am one). Aside from being embarrassing, it's annoying and rude.
What are the chances that after hearing countless rants about how good christians wanted to kill musilms,towel heads,diaper heads,sand niggers, etc...this normaly sensitive Hasan, guy simply lost it?
Micheal Moore's only serious movie, Bowling for Columbine, tries to make sense of America's hyper-violent society.
Grouchy, America is only "hyper-violent" when compared to a place like, say, Japan. When you compare it to the UK, for instance, it's really not that different, brawls and stabbings being much more common in the latter because gun control "worked".
If you want to see real "hyper-violence", take a trip south of the border, practically anywhere in the other America. That's not to mention, of course, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc where Columbines may not happen, but a lot worse goes on as a matter of fact.
To Billy Jack:
Thanks for the consolation. You might actually be interested in reading the blogger "Slacktivist"... he is an evangelical Christian who often argues, with biblical references, that the point of evangelism is to be inviting and to actually help people in concrete ways, rather than, as Slacktivist puts it, "being an asshole for Christ". Here's a semi-recent, semi-relevant example.
To Flamingo Bob:
Sorry, I tried that already, it didn't work. Of course they easily dug up examples where CNBC and the rest of the "EmmEssEmm" have done something that's superficially the same thing. And that's all that counts for these people: scoring points, rather than addressing issues. If they can show that 'your side', (whatever they imagine or impute that to be), has done the same dirty trick that you are accusing 'their side' of, then they "WIN", at least in their own minds. They have "counted coup" upon you. As many people have observed, annoying the Libruls is the real goal; any particular issue is just a disposable, changeable means towards that end.
America is only "hyper-violent" when compared to a place like, say, Japan.
In less than 30 seconds I pulled this off Wikipedia:
"Despite the overall crime rate of the United States being seemingly in line with that of other industrialized countries, its homicide rate, which has declined substantially since 1991, is still among the highest in the industrialized world. [...] Only the homicide rate of Northern Ireland in the early 1990s compares to that of the United States today."
and
"In 2004, there were 5.5 homicides for every 100,000 persons, compared to 1.9 in Canada and 1.0 in Germany. This means that the homicide rate in the United States was nearly three times as high as in Canada and slightly more than five times as high as in Germany. Most industrialized countries had homicide rates below the 2.5 mark. Overall the homicide rate in the United States was similar to that of some lesser developed Eastern European countries."
Incitatus, you like to pretend you're some sort of "man of the world" speaking to children who have never been outside the USA. Often, you're just wanking off.
Billy Jack,
How can Nadal Hassan's actions be considered unethical if our freedoms come from our creator?
Hassan was an agent of that creator, robe and hat and all. Perhaps God saw fit to take away freedom of action from some of the people he gave it to. After all, what does it mean to kill someone other than to take away their freedom of action in the most complete and final way? Who are we to question God or his instrument?
If you believe freedom comes from God, you leave yourself open to the possibility that someone acting in God's name has a legitimate claim to take the freedoms of others away.
People are supposed to be free. End of story; no supernatural endorsement required. That freedom comes from our own integrity and willingness to defend that freedom. The Bill of Rights is the physical form of that notion.
I glady accept our violent society over Europe's taxes.
Incitatus, you like to pretend you're some sort of "man of the world" speaking to children who have never been outside the USA.
You take it all too personally, my friend, and as usual come out too riled up for little cause.
I'm very skeptical of the notion that we have "free will," but I agree that it feels like we do from our limited perspective. We certainly have to live as though we believe we are "free."
Talking about "our creator" is idiotic. If you believe you know what "god" is or what "he" thinks, you're delusional and potentially dangerous.
Honor. Duty. God. Victory. Sacrifice. Competition. Hero. Freedom.
Why do so many Americans fear the words that made this country great?
Thomas Daulton: Get a good job and move out of your parent's house. While you are under their roof, suck it up and listen to what they listen too. Take some responsibility like the landscaper and doctor, get a job, then you can listen to whatever you want in your onw home.
Hey Anon 11:44 --
I just got back six weeks ago from four years of serving our country overseas, with a branch of the State Department. Pardon me for not finding a job in the middle of a worldwide Depression where the American median unemployment time is around six months.
Just out of curiosity, have you ever served your country abroad?
Thomas Daulton, you didn't "serve" you disserved. I *absolutely, positively do NOT appreciate* what the members of the military ARE doing, and HAVE done. So, don't ask me to appreciate their actions, nor, their intentions stated at a verbal level which are belied by their actions.
To promote veterans while opposing war is an attack on reason itself. We veterans need to admit that we are powerless with our addiction and we need a 12-step program.
You are appealing to bedrock issues that people cannot overcome (loyalty, compassion, patriotism, etc) to use our humanity as a fulcrum, prodding us to support the people who are #1 most responsible for war. And that is to acquiesce in war, to support war, to block accountability or blame for wars.
All the wars since at least WW2 have NOT been self defense, these have all been aggressions. The U.S. has killed millions of innocent people in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq. Those people never attacked the U.S. So why did we kill them? And why do we kill, throughout Afghanistan today and onwards, into Pakistan? Did those people attack America? I strongly disapprove of the entire US military. For shame. They are not defending us. They're just suckin money from the USA.
I condemn the U.S. Congress, the President, and the military. They have not served America. They disserved. The reputation and standing of the soldiers, the veterans, and the Congress and President institutionally AND INDIVIDUALLY, comes from the character of their actions, not by wishful thinking, or the daily propaganda exercises with flags, or holidays, to convince the public of their self-serving activities for which they are paid $Billions of dollars. .
Todd USN 1970-72
Thomas,
You should have saved some money while you were overseas. Get a job.
Boyle knows what's what.
incitatus said:
"If you want to see real "hyper-violence", take a trip south of the border, practically anywhere in the other America."
its always funny to me that the US has to be compared to the third world to look civilized.
its [sic] always funny to me that the US has to be compared to the third world to look civilized.
I love it when they compare US health care to Latin American countries. Same thing.
In actuality, the US should be in a class of its own, beating Europe on quality of life issues--it's the richest country in history.
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