Dear America

I know that even though you aspire to the New Testament maxim of "turn the other cheek" as opposed to the Old Testament's "an eye for eye" that it is difficult, and sometimes we have no choice but confront like with like. We've a right to defend and protect ourselves, and that is for sure no matter what any peacenick idealists may suggest*.

Still, I wonder what kind of person it takes to think that this is "ok".

Here is a measure of the state of the war in Iraq: The number of Iraqis dying each month now rivals the total number of people who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
How many eyes must be taken before we're even?

Shankar Vedantam looks scientifically at one of the most intractable problems of human personality when it comes to leaving behind archaic instincts such as an eye for an eye.

Really, why can't we all just along?


* Oops! Neglected to mention that such would, like, totally include yours truly. ;-}

Comments

  1. I like the movie line from The Sting: Newman to Redford - Revenge is for suckers.

    This is a terrible, horrid mess we are in and it's painful to watch and becoming more so every day.

    Peace.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That stat is outrageous. And I don't know what it is that is trying to be achieved. Surely this can't go on much longer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's always been a fave o' mine too, Mary.

    One can almost-only hope, Dikkii.

    I'm just waitin' to see if Nancy Pelosi has made any rational decision based on how jammed her switchboard was at the end of last week. We'll see...

    ReplyDelete
  4. How many eyes must be taken before we're even?

    I wish that the Iraq War actually had something to do with revenge, then we really could step back, reassess, and disengage. But since it has nothing to do with revenge, retribution, or protection then all the Iraqis who die are just collateral damage, and it will never be otherwise for Bu$hCo.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I dig that as far as our presence there goes, but that presence is horribly exacerbating all the revenge killings that are goin' on in country. Until we get out, there'll constantly be more chaos and motivation for ever more - well - chaos and revenge killings.

    Point mightily taken though. I really should've mentioned it m'self. Thanks Kvatch.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts