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Something has prevented my fingers from typing anything here about the latest conflict in the Middle East. I`ve wanted to bend in half and cry over all the destruction, the raw grief. I`ve imagined how horrible it must be to dig what`s left of your child out of a pile of steaming rubble. I`ve imagined the shock of seeing a crater where family photos once were. I`ve imagined the horror of waking up under crushed concrete, wondering where my other arm went. It`s so sad to think that the repulsive results of war are not enough to deter some from calling for more blood. Yet, a half hour of call-ins on Washington Journal is time enough to learn the ugly truth. Many, many Americans just can`t get enough war. History matters as little as empathy. They just can`t get enough war.
Maybe it`s a Jimmy Carter moment, a time begging us to reject revenge. Sure, we`d have to endure a few barbs, slung mostly by safe-and-secure chickenhawks, but we wouldn`t have blood under our nails. Sure, we`d have to endure endless hours of corporate media`s PlayStation war graphics....unless we hit the OFF button and wrote a letter to the editor instead.
Perhaps I`m wrong. Maybe The Rapture is coming. Maybe all bearded people ARE terrorists. Maybe God really did give George W. Bush the thumbs-up on blowing up half the world. Maybe the caskets piling up here at home WILL make us safer. Maybe civilian casualties AREN`T such a big deal. Maybe I`m in the grips of some silly idealism....way out in left field....laughingstock material. I do know one thing....the star of hope, which was once epitomized America`s ideals, has grown very dim. The quest for Empire is killing it.
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